Belli Dura Despicio: I Despise the Hard Knocks of War
by grimreaper's lost soul
Summary: Deployed to patrol the Turian Fringe Systems the HNV Invictus is badly damaged and is forced to blind-jump with a damaged FTL drive, it's crew survives the ordeal, landing on Humanities doorstep the crew is rescued and the Invictus is scuttled, Humanity learning of the Hierarchy moves to put its best foot forward by bringing their wayward sons and daughters home. Alternate FC Fic.
1. Best Foot Forward

October 6th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
Demeter Anchorage, Combat Information Centre.

* * *

Stood within the officer of the watch's ready room, looking out of the expansive see-through aluminium window Rear-Admiral James Cutter read and re-read the paper report in his dominant right hand, a bottle of his finest brandy in his left off hand, the grizzled 'old guard' officer could barely believe what he was reading.  
Something which had yet to be released to the general public.

First contact with an extra-terrestrial species, a rather militaristic one at that, the Turian's as designated by an open Codex which ONI's technicians had pulled from the somewhat still intact open databases, their Cruiser HNV Invictus had been mission killed while in combat with a slaver race designated as Batarian's which had left them adrift after performing a last ditch emergency combat Faster Than Light manoeuvre.

Anything ONI technicians could get their grubby hands on be it written, verbal or intact sensor reports had been used to confirm the established facts and with input from those in the Civilian Government in the know pushed NAV-HIGH-COM to put their best foot forward, to open a dialogue by returning their wayward crew home sans ship seeing as Turian Naval Doctrine dictated that the Invictus be scuttled, everyone had agreed to it openly but requested that a general purpose scan be taken for an open record and no doubtedly the multitude of reports that were in the works.

The issue was as of right now however that Human Space even the frontier systems were so far off the beaten-path it was ridiculous; how the Turian Cruiser had survived the trip was a feat of engineering and maybe the ships own stubborn pride, needless to say when the Turian navigation data that had also been pulled had been compared to their own records, seeing as the mission to return the wayward crew would take a solid two years there and back it had been declared a gross misallocation of valuable resources to send one of the Navies most capable state of the art warships so far from home, for so long.  
That was where the good Admiral came in, Demeter had an entire Battlegroup of older, but still highly capable warships in her thirty berths' the Admiralty however had their eyes on one Vessel in particular.

And the Grizzled salt and pepper haired officer was looking directly at her, laid up in a ribcage looking mobile dock, her name proudly donned on her retracted flight pods.

The Lion class Battlestar SSV-LION Pennant number R-106. Currently undergoing a modernisation of sorts, the Lion was humanities old testament of conducting naval warfare, her design was almost a carbon copy of the Vessel that had inspired her designers, with key differences.

The Lion had cost nearly a Trillion credits to conceptualise, develop and build, so no expense was spared in the quality of the titanium that built her superstructure which was a further unique factor considering the Lion like all of her siblings utilised what was known as a spineless keel, she had been built out of honeycombs, one of the strongest natural shapes known to man.  
Her double skinned hull was half a metre of titanium on the inner skin, with a supercooled gel layer sandwiched between the outer hull which measured at a solid three metres in thickness.

Additionally, all key systems such as CIC, Engineering, the multiple magazines' fuel bunkers and all secondary stations were protected by metre thick citadels each of which worked on independent systems if the vessel had been compromised.

The Lion class of Battlestar's were the most durable vessels in the navy, even those built with modern standards. The Lion's weren't lacking for firepower either considering that somehow, none of the fifty 'three-gun' turrets had been scrapped to pay for her long term maintenance, which in of itself was seen as a miracle of some degree, in fact the Lion alongside her sister ships were loaded with the entirety of what remained of Humanities' 20 inch KATIE rounds, all of them had been squirreled away into multiple WMD lockers, deep within the primary magazines, due to her status as an active reserve vessel her regular 20 inch APAC and APACHE rounds had been cycled back into the rest of the fleet when she was placed into Demeter's care, the irony being all of those very rounds were currently being replenished and secured into her magazines.  
So it came as some surprise to the Rear Admiral that on top of her main batteries 20 RAPIER anti-ship missile pods were being mounted on the Lion's only spare hardpoints along the port and starboard sides of the ventral hull, loaded with forty 120 kiloton missiles each.  
Additionally her four defunct 1200mm torpedo tubes which had been deactivated midway through her frontline service had been reactivated, with the magazines once again being loaded for the first time in a long time beyond recommended safe capacity with British BAE Fleet Systems designed Spearfish Heavy Disrupter Torpedo's of all things.

It was overkill to the highest degree in Cutter's eyes; then again from Cutter's own personal experience during the height of the Insurrection, it was better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it.

Alongside the Primary weapon systems getting a much-needed update, her five-hundred plus point defence batteries that had been based on the venerated R2-D2 Phalanx of old were being serviced, their independent radar domes being upgraded to modern standards, to better intercept any potential incoming missile or fighter contacts.

What had been the main focus of the modernisations however were the 160 newly built Viper Mark Eight's, modernised scratch built Viper's based on the old tried and tested Mark Four's, which where the last mark of viper capable of utilising the Lion's built in launch tube rack system, additionally her older Albatross gunship / transports had been swapped for the somewhat newer 'but still older' than the current standard workhorse of the fleet the Pelican D77H-TCI multi-role gunship / transports, her central hanger space had new workshops installed for the long hall, provided that the raw materials were available.

In all honesty he felt bad for any bastard stupid enough to cross her, or her Commanding Officer for that matter. Captain Liam Spruce had made a career of making Insurrectionists lives nothing but pure hell, the man had his crew run both with amazing efficiency mixed with blatant laziness, his method was fighting smart not hard, that wasn't to say the man was a walkover as an officer, he expected nothing less than the crews best at all times, the results spoke for themselves and the crew could expect to lose more than a few privileges if they were caught taking the piss so to speak.

The Modernisation would take a week to finish without any future delays, the surviving Turian servicemen were due to arrive tomorrow, a good few of them, those of critical condition at least, were placed into cryogenic suspension alongside the honoured dead, the rest would be in it for the long haul unfortunately.  
Luckily, the Turian's ration supplies would last at least a year amongst the reduced crew numbers, as an added bonus a good chunk of their hydroponics bay had survived the ordeal, meaning they could bulk up their rations with Dextro based fruits and vegetables.  
Said plants were being placed into the Lion's own Hydroponics bay ahead of the Turian arrivals, the Dextro based plants had been given a cordoned off section to prevent any mix ups between the crew who ran the place, Cutter honestly believed if someone was stupid enough to mix up the produce, that they should suffer through the supposed allergic reaction.

Glancing high left the Admiral set his eyes on his wall mounted clock, well come what may it was time to inform the captain of his upcoming mission.

* * *

October 6th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, OIC Ward Room.

* * *

"You're having a fucking laugh; please tell me this is a god damn prank…." I purposefully left my sentence open ended, while I held the mission briefing, my mission briefing in my left hand, while I used my right hand to pinch the bridge of my nose between my forefinger and thumb.  
Rear Admiral Cutter looked at me with mirth all over the bastards face no doubtedly enjoying my facial expressions as I re-read what was written. "This is no joke, you and yours will be taking the Lion well and truly past the "Red Line." You'll be Humanities eyes and ears out in the greater galaxy representing Humanities best and brightest. To be honest, this isn't something we can ignore, the Turian Hierarchy is one of the largest known military forces, putting our best foot forward by getting their wayward sons and daughters' home could curry us some favour, I'd rather Humanity wasn't on the wrong side of near enough 6000 Element Zero based vessels."

"So, I'm a captain and Humanities god damned ambassador, we aren't Starfleet damn it, don't we have diplomats for this sort of drama?" The Rear Admiral gave a dark chuckle. "The only one the Government was willing to send was Phillip Udina." The look I shot towards Cutter told him exactly where that idea could be shoved. "I told them Hell would freeze over before that bastard set foot on the Lion while you were in command, so you better damn well brush up on your table manners and get to reading the Galactic Codex that has been sent to your personal computer."

Sifting through the multiple sheets of paper in my hand I glanced at multiple predictions done by the brain trust. "We're looking at a two-year round trip avoiding any "Mass Relay" designated systems, skirting the edge of projected Batarian Hegemony space, add to that anything from days, weeks, months or years of negotiations depending if the Hierarchy takes a liking to us or not, the crew is going to be pissed about pay. Extended Deployment, Hazard Pay, it's good…." I would've continued if not for Cutter, well pardon the bad pun cut in. "Your crew will be given 2-Alpha pay for the Duration of the mission up to five years, after that cut off you'll be declared Missing in Action, by year six you'll be presumed dead."

2-Alpha pay was an incentive to increase volunteers for what had been seen in the fleet as one-way missions; volunteer suicide mission pay we called it informally, a full 2500 credits bolstering that month's wage if you lived to get a hold of it. If not, it'd go towards any dependents or next of kin. "That being said captain, you'll have a staffing issue on hand with the new additions so, NAV-HIGH-COM has seen it fit to promote some of your crew, specifically your XO, she'll be given news later today that she's earned her command, replacing her will be the Turian's highest ranking officer, Ka'mara Nyx, she's something akin to a Lieutenant Commander, Turian Command's statements on her file give glowing reviews, she'll help you run a tight ship Captain, read her file and accompanying reports in your spare time, it'll smooth things over a bit."

"Thanks for the tip old timer, what's next teaching me to suck eggs?" Cutter gave a boisterous laugh at my retort. "God damn am I going to miss your usual snarky attitude out here, this posting will be pretty fucking dull with you gone." Cutter and I shared a brief moment in silence, the only background noise was the usual rumble from the air vents fed direct from the localised life support system. "You know just between you and me, you're damn well like the son me and the missus couldn't have, you watch your back out there or I can guarantee you Hailey will be dragging your ass from whatever pit in hell you've found yourself in to kill your ass a second time."

I could believe it too, Colonel Hailey 'The Halberd' Cutter was tough as old leather boots and had more brass pinned to her chest than most Generals, some of her exploits were legend back in the Officers Academy on New Portsmouth.  
Placing my brief on to my desk, I spoke up after another brief moment of silence. "You know, I've still got a bottle of Cockburn's Port stashed away, given what's riding on this mission, I figure no matter if we succeed or fail, we crack it open." Cutter perked up at that. "What year?"

"2105."

"Fuck me, I know a couple of Admirals that'd kill to get a grip of that, most of 'em ONI." I smirked. "How about I crack open something open as a toast?" Only for Cutter to bite back. "Is that a question Captain?"

"No sir, I just thought a good Admiral I know would like to get a shot of 2159 Harvest Brandy." I said whilst rising up from my chair to open my personal safe, Cutter having been in my ward room enough times grabbed two glasses embossed with the Lion's patch on its surface pulling out my Multi-tool from its pouch on my belt I broke the wax seal.  
With both of us sat once more I poured two fingers of the amber liquid into each glass, both of us clinking the glasses together in cheers before enjoying the 47 year old beverage. "Damn son, how do you get your hands on the good stuff?"

"I know a guy; we'll leave it at that." Cutter smirked before finishing his shot. "Welp I best be off Captain, it wouldn't look good on my peer review if I enjoyed too much of the good stuff, got my retirement to be thinking about." Standing up I gave the good admiral a crisp salute, to which he returned. "Oh, before I forget, I'll be having the SSV Two For Flinching docking with the Cradle directly for personal transfers, unfortunately the ones on ice will have to be shuttled through the primary and secondary airlocks."

"I'll put up a memo for a general muster at oh seven hundred I'll have the crew briefed and ready to receive our exchange crew before the Two For Flinching begins transiting through the cloud layer."

"Good luck Captain." Cutter made his way through my Ward Rooms' door before making his way to one of the many airlock umbilical connectors that affixed the Lion to the Cradle to procure a shuttle back to Demeter leaving me to my thoughts.

* * *

October 6th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
En-route to Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV Two For Flinching BC-306, Guest Officer's Quarters.

* * *

Ka'mara Nyx had found the Humans to be unique to put it lightly, her personal research into them had shown a race inclined to use diplomacy as first means to disarm a situation, much like the Asari would, however Humanity was more than willing to commit to total war to end a threat as quickly and humanly as possible, oftentimes supplying enemy states with the materials to rebuild rather than letting animosity to fester and grow a harsh lesson learned during the turn of humanities twentieth century period.  
So they had the military tradition much like the Hierarchy had, but they also had a stellar intelligence network of competing agencies some of which literally wrote the Human book on intelligence, counter intelligence, terrorism and counter terrorism techniques, much like the Salarian's STG only de-centralised the only organisation that had some degree of insight into these individual agencies was the Office of Naval Intelligence, they only had that capacity because all of ONI's agents were selected from the absolute best from all of the other organisations.

Aside from the obvious comparisons to the big three, they were shrewd bankers much like the Volus, had a degree of engineering expertise she hadn't seen since several Quarrian Engineers overhauled the HNV Invictus, thinking back to it, the sole reason the crew had survived that unstable FTL jump was probably thanks to them.  
They had a stoicism about them and could be almost as hard to read as the micro-expressionist Elcor, apparently a huge navy tradition was to play a card game called poker, where any micro-expression could blow your entire hand making or breaking a lot of wallets in the fleet, a few of the crew who took to Skyllian Five in their spare time took to this Poker as the humans would say like a fish to water.  
The Krogan like comparison's couldn't be missed either, older footage of wars come and gone had shown her how ferocious Humans fought with their backs to the wall, they were like a cornered Varren unpredictable and outright vicious.

However alien Humans were to her they were like the best and somewhat arguable worst traits of all of the known races in the larger galaxy, but she could and would be thankful to the Human race for committing to getting her crew and herself home, even if said vessel was going to be of an older design.  
Removing herself from her thoughts Ka'mara enjoyed the sensation of warm water running over her steel grey carapace and tan flesh, her room's en-suite shower had been a nice addition to her somewhat temporary accommodation's, her lime green slit eyes glanced over the myriad of small cuts and nicks to her body from the last two weeks, Humanity had applied a universal medical gel which had sped up the natural healing process, leaving her with only raw blueish flesh where she would no doubtedly scar, the feminine hygiene products that had been given to her in lieu of the ones that she hadn't managed to salvage were nice to the senses and to use.  
The Human Navy had seen it fit to accommodate Turian regulations regarding personal sidearms, the Turian Marines had been able to keep their rifles alongside a shotgun alongside their sidearms so long as the Marines stowed their weapons into one of the armouries aboard for the trip, the rest of the equipment which was salvaged was sent days in advance to their new posting everything from the plants in hydroponics to mechanical tools for the chief engineer and medical supplies for the CMO to use, personal effects were sparse but everything that couldn't fit into one Human Navy duffel bag was shipped ahead as well.

Shutting the shower off Ka'mara stepped out grabbing her issued towel and proceeded to dry off the water that clung to her body, flicking her wrist her personal omni-tool lit up giving Ka'mara updates on the crew as well as any messages that required her immediate attention, stepping into her quarters she grabbed her issued underwear and took to sitting at the desk in her room where a small portable computer sat, it's screen already illuminated, with multiple reports, files and odd bits of information sat.

Selecting her next bit of reading for the next couple of hours, she took to it in earnest.

_SSV Lion R-106 with Captain Spruce commanding proceeded to deal a decisive blow to insurrectionist naval forces by crippling the Flagship INV Redeye and multiple high priority vessels such as the INV REDRUM, INV Barracuda, INV Gorgon and INV Rico, this single action has for the foreseeable future crippled Insurrectionist forces in the Frontier Colony Regions many Insurrectionist colonies have since quickly folded back into the Systems Alliance's control, The Lion is due to receive her second Century kill marker on her hull as well as the distinctive Long Service marker reserved for vessels that have served in the fleet for over eighty years placing her alongside warship legends such as SSV Illustrious, SSV America, SSV Galactica, SSV Pillar of Autumn as well as many others._

To learn that even if the Vessel taking them home was of a much older pedigree, to find little facts that the SSV had at least 200 combat kills as well as 80 years of consistent service with the Human Systems Alliance Fleet was a weight off of her shoulders, in fact if such a vessel was in service with the Hierarchy Fleets a good number of the older generations would probably fight tooth and talon to just get the chance to serve aboard it, it had a prestige to it, a legend, both a feared and respected, the documentation that was available on the human civilian networks also painted a picture, the Lion class Battlestar's were built completely from honeycombs, Human engineers had removed the ability to break the spine by removing the spine completely, an ingenious design one the Hierarchy itself could learn from.  
Lion's also lacked a conventional networking capability, every system was independent from another eliminating any possible cyberwarfare intrusion into the ships systems, but those independent systems were highly automated to reduce the number of crew needed to operate her.

Ka'mara Nyx would spend a good deal of her night reading up on provided service records and supplemental debriefings to mentally prepare herself for the coming day where she alongside the other survivors from the Invictus would live, work and adapt to being alongside their Human comrades for the coming years.  
Switching off the portable computer Ka'mara took to laying on the somewhat spacious bed provided to human officers and let her body relax for the first time in a long time she didn't know how to feel but she wouldn't dwell on it, she was one of the Hierarchies finest up and coming officers she would do her duty and do it well.

* * *

To be continued…


	2. The Old And Bold, New Coming Through

**AN: I wanted to set the tone in this chapter, but I've had a few cold ones whilst writing this over the last couple of days, so if anything seems out of place give me a review or a PM, do the same if you loved / hated it, any and all criticism is welcome... well that's me done for a couple of days I'll look forward to seeing what you all have to say about this one.**

**Also if anyone is up to Beta this give me a shout on a PM. Cheers!**

* * *

October 7th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, En-route to the Combat Information Centre [CIC].

* * *

Making my way from my ward-room towards the Lion's CIC had been a usual affair, crew saluting as I walked past them with my usual measured pace, my olive green duty uniform crisp as always munitions trams rattling down tracks underneath the floor running the length and breadth of the Lion each carrying pallets of main battery rounds weighing a colossal two-thousand kilograms each, it felt good to feel the Lion's old but far from obsolete systems running smoothly throughout my trek, the crew were ecstatic about the Lion being re-activated into frontline duty.  
Even the older hands who'd operated in the Lion's often forgotten Torpedo room which had once found itself occupied by 'The Old Gang' or TOG as their personal get together Bar / Rec room, found themselves applying their skills once more utilising some of the deadliest non-nuclear weapons in the Systems Alliance arsenal.

The Marines and Special Orbital Infantry Service members weren't left out either, the Lion's various armouries were fully stocked with some interesting toy's, most of it surplus last generation weapons like the vaunted MA-3D AR the rifles were chambered for the 8.20 X 99mm Armour Piercing Explosive [APE] rounds, the unique recoil dampening systems implemented in the model brought the MA-4 series of rifles into service but in a lighter frame utilising 7.62 x 99mm AP rounds instead.

Not that the Marines were complaining, another old but gold addition to the armouries were the M57-D1 Section Support Weapon, AKA: The 'Dirty' Smart Gun, a weapon of considerable controversy with future talks of even banning its use on the battlefield; the weapon could be utilised with a 200 round lead lined drum or 5000 round lead lined backpack with an insulated rubber feed, loaded with the somewhat controversial 10 x 99 mm APE-D rounds however unlike regular ape the rounds were given a couple of grams of Polonium-210 guaranteed to give radiation poisoning to any poor bastard it was used against.

The deck hands / grease monkeys were no doubtedly learning every quirk in every viper with the Viper jocks making sure their birds were customised to their liking as each free minute they'd have they'd put the Vipers through their paces as was tradition in the Fleet, the Pelican's came fully decked with attachable missile pods, a nose mounted state of the art link less fed 40mm autocannon and wing mounted pintle 10 x 99mm M299 Gatling guns, the blood tray also receiving a deployable 7.62 x 99mm General Purpose Machine Gun.

These glorious workhorses could ferry sixteen marines and one of sixteen, 60-ton Challenger 'Longbow' main battle tanks, armed with a 140mm gauss linier main cannon, a fifty calibre co-axial machinegun and two remotely operated GPMP's, with additional applique armour packages and an anti-missile hard kill system.  
The Pelicans could alternatively carry any one of our stored Jackal IFV's a 4x4 ATV armed with a 50. Cal, 40mm GMG or a missile pod, whatever the variant all of them came with a secondary GPMG for the front seat passenger to utilise, or they could deploy the Coyote ISV's which were a 6x6 support vehicle geared towards troop transportation rather than infantry fighting but that didn't mean they were defenceless just like the Jackal the Coyote's came armed with either a 50. Cal, or a Gauss Liner Cannon cannon.

Shaking my head clear of any thoughts I approached the four Marines posted outside of one of the four bulkhead hatches leading to the CIC of the Lion, the four quickly snapped to attention with me returning their salute. "Anything new from the rumour mill lads?" I asked, dropping my salute. "Well sir, some of the tech's keep talking about some crazy shit showing up in the manifests, and that one of the tertiary cargo bays' is being converted into another 'Ice Box' for another 200 cryo-pods." Spoke the first of the four marines.

I smirked. "Anything else?"

"Well a few of us were drafted into organising a couple of the armouries, I'm telling you sir half of that shit I haven't seen before, it's pretty fucking strange to me." Spoke the second. "And don't forget that the techies in Hydroponics had to cordon off whatever the fuck those plants are." Spoke the third whilst the fourth chipped in as well. "Don't forget those rat-packs that were delivered late yesterday. What the hell is going on sir?"

"I'll be briefing the crew at oh seven-hundred hours, all you need to know before hand is that it's a Two-Alpha payed mission, for up to five years on an endurance deployment." The marine's eyes widened a touch. "I know this'll be cheeky sir but where are we headed?"

"For now, all I can tell you is that it's beyond the Red-Line, hopefully if everything goes well this mission will be a three-year deployment top's…." The marines nodded in understanding, before the fourth asked a final question. "What's our cut off?"

"In five years our Two-Alpha pay will cease, on year six we'll be declared lost with all hands presumed dead."

"Understood sir, we'll get it done." The other three marines chipped in with a muttered oohrah between them. "Keep it to yourselves for now, brief will be in 50 minutes so keep an ear out will ya." I nodded to the four of them before typing in my access code which prompted the door to open automatically, stepping through the threshold into the CIC proper, the entire command staff stood from their posts.  
"At ease ladies and gents, I want the usual day duty reports delivered to myself as our dear Exec has no doubtedly found an email on her personal pad or computer that she has been accepted for promotion and is in no doubt rushing around like the irate red-head she is to pack all of her gear up."

The CIC broke out into a small amount of laughter at the jab. "As have nearly 400 of our crew, each have been promoted and will be sent on their merry way to new stations aboard vessels far more deserving of their winning personalities." Turning towards Lieutenant Smollet the Lion's senior communications officer. "Remind me at oh six fifty-five hours to brief the crew."

"Aye sir." Whilst talking to the crew I'd made my way to the centremost position in the CIC at the war-table, its display brightly lit showing a diagnostic of the Lion in a 3D wirework.

Picking up my personal wireless from its base I pressed a button beside the base marked MNENG. "This is the Captain, Chief what's the good news?" I asked sarcastically, waiting for the Lion's Scottish chief engineer to use his personal uniform mounted wireless. "Well t' good news is tha' I knae th' old girl like th' back of me hand, I managed ta shave two days off o' th' refit cap'n, we'll be ready ta get underway ahead o' schedule."

"Good man, keep up the good work Chief."

"Aye." The Scotsman replied before I cut the line, looking up from my position beside the war-table I looked towards the Lion's Chief Gunnery Officer [CGO] the blonde male officer was busy taking notes on the main, secondary and tertiary magazines, a frown on his face told me something was amiss. "CGO have we got an issue?" I asked as I approached his post. "Sir, I've gone, checked and triple checked the tertiary magazines, we're missing around 8,000,000 rounds for the AF-AM batteries."

"Is it a mistake on our end?" I queried. "No sir, I even cross referenced with the Demeter deliveries documentation, they hadn't received the delivery either." I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "Did you find any reports of this issue being brought up the chain?" The CGO looked towards a nearby tablet before picking it up, doing his due diligence he scrolled through each of the collected reports. "Not a word of it being passed up the chain, sir."

"Alright I'll contact the Admiral, I'll put in for an urgent request for your missing rounds and see if the MP's can investigate and get to the bottom of this."

"Understood and thank you sir."

After returning to my post and a solid twenty minutes passing along our problem to the old man in charge, I could just feel the migraine mounting already. "Sir, it's oh six fifty-five you asked me to remind you."

"Thank you, Lieutenant, patch me though ship-wide." At the press of a button my Wireless was connected to every speaker on board the Lion, picking my wireless off of its base a three-tone whistle sounded, alerting the crew to a command staff public announcement.

"Ladies, gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking, yesterday I had just been briefed by the Old Man in charge that we are to deploy on a mission that will on best predictions be around three years long, this mission is classified top-secret, any word of this leaks and your ass is mine to throw out of the god damned airlock for treason…."

Crewmen stopped in their tracks to listen more keenly to the coming brief. "A couple of weeks ago, Humanity made first contact, the how's, what's and why's don't matter…. what does matter is that we the crew of the navies most auspicious Battlestar Lion, have been selected by the Civilian and Military higher ups to return a wayward crew home, to put Humanities best foot forward so to speak and to make allies with the wider galaxy…. we will be going further than any Human ship in history, we'll have nothing but our fellow crewmates to rely on, as a bonus the higher ups have been gracious enough to up our monthly pay for up to five years to Two-Alpha status….

A few of the crew of the Lion broke out into small celebrations at the news of the increase in pay.

"I don't need to tell you how bloody important this mission is, so I want everyone giving nothing but their best throughout this mission. I want our additions to be treat as any other crewman, earn their respect as fellow sailors, I get one serious infraction reported to me that isn't a case of cultural misunderstanding I will personally make your lives living hell."

With that out of the way I took to issuing orders to all of the relevant personal to receive transfers from the Two For Flinching via the Umbilical's from the Cradle, whilst I had technicians ready at the primary and secondary airlocks for the crew which were on ice for the duration of the trip.

All we had to do now, was wait.

Looking up towards the various monitors above my head I muttered to myself. "May we live in interesting times…." Out of the entirety of the CIC only the Chinese helmsman caught what I muttered chuckling to himself at my expense. The bastard.

* * *

October 7th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV Two For Flinching BC-306, Ten-Forward Observation.

* * *

When the call had gone out that the Two For Flinching was on final approach, most if not all of the Invictus's crew were assembled in the Ten-Forward to catch a glimpse of the homeport of their new home, needless to say the clashing of blue hues with swirling greens of the super gas giant were incredible, nature after all was the universes greatest artist, what the crew of the Invictus hadn't expected was for the Two For Flinching to continue its course heading directly into the cloud layer of the super gas giant a general call to brace for turbulence was given as the support ship ploughed through areas of high and low pressure, the journey took a couple of minutes but soon afterwards the two kilometre long vessel found itself in the presence of a five-kilometre 'tall' station, three concentric rings separated by a couple of hundred metres rotated around the central spire that formed most of the stations mass.

Twelve berths were placed in three groups of four each layer offset from the last, all twelve of the berths had a vessel of some description in each of them each of them following function over form while the rest of the reserve fleet stationed here were in individual ribcage like structures some large most of the others small, the Two For Flinching had greatly reduced its momentum by firing its forward thrusters, making micro adjustments as it manoeuvred between the structures, those Turian's with keen eyes could spot the multitude of defence satellites surrounding the Anchorage in a protective bubble the sight was something familiar to the Turian's as their own equivalent fleet stations offered a similar defence system in case of a potential attack.

It was nice to see another race taking their personal security seriously, much like the Hierarchy had done in the decades passed, but what caught their attention was the SSV Lion itself her 1.4 kilometre length with her alligator head with the Human gun metal grey Titanium Battleplate armour, bristling with fifty 'three-gun' batteries a ludicrous amount of point defence batteries and whatever other missile and torpedo systems that had to be hidden from view, it was a sight to say the least, with quite a few of the younger crew openly gawping.

"All hands, all hands prepare starboard docking tubes for personal transfers to the SSV Lion via the Cradle, technicians prepare the cryo-pods for shuttle transfers via our secondary and tertiary shuttle-bays…. This is a general call for all Invictus crew please assemble at the Starboard docking tubes in two hours to begin transferring to the SSV Lion." Ka'mara watched as her crew disbanded to begin finishing packing up their personal affects from their temporary cabins. "This is a general call for all Turian Marine Personal, please ensure your personal equipment is retrieved from the armoury, quarter masters will be present to issue a disclaimer that all of your personal arms have been returned, please ensure everything is accounted for before signing. Thank you."

Ka'mara had served on the Invictus for multiple years, it still gave her some pride that in less than one and a half hours every active member of her crew were assembled and stood to one side of the hallway in a Turian textbook ready-line to transfer to their new home, after all first impressions counted for everything, flicking her wrist to activate her personal omni-tool for a quick second she typed in a few quick commands before pressing one of her two taloned fingers to her right ear, opening her personal comms to her crew. "This is Leftenant-Commander Nyx to all Invictus crew, roll-call." Within seconds her omni-tool lit up with notifications of all of the active crew in attendance.  
Half an hour would pass with human crewmen passing them by paying little attention to them, until a female black skinned officer dressed in an olive dress uniform with grey accents and gold trims stepped towards them. "Commander Nyx, though my duties have kept me from interacting with you and yours for any long periods of time, I wish to say that it has been a privilege and a pleasure to have been the ones to deliver you all to Demeter, I can only wish you all the best of luck from here on out you're all in it for the long haul."

"Thank you, Captain." The female human officer held her hand out in the typical manner to shake a hand, offering her own both females shook hands before offering the other their equivalent to a salute. "Permission to depart Captain." The female officer smiled. "Permission granted." Without a word the Invictus crew picked up their issued duffel bags in a uniform manner, before departing through the open airlock to transfer through to the Cradle and then to the Lion proper, within two minutes the uniform line of Turian's were ushered into one of the umbilical's attached to one of the Lion's multiple airlocks, the door sealed and locked, until a few seconds later when it opened with a pressurised hiss. "Commander Ka'mara Nyx I presume."

"Yes-sir!" She replied somewhat enthusiastically. "It's an honour to be serving under you Captain Liam Spruce. Permission to come-aboard." Now Ka'mara could inspect the good captain, he was donning a work-dress uniform with multiple coloured ribbons adorning his left breast just below his name tag, on the opposite breast sat the uniform patch for the SSV Lion R-106 the words Belli Dura Despicio embossed just below, his pale white skin contrasted sharply with the auburn short but well-kept beard on the lower half of his face, his military cropped hair was well-kept too but a scar cut across the right side of his head just above his temple where the tip of his right ear was missing. "Permission Granted. Please follow me, unfortunately we'll have to take a trip to the central garage before I dismiss you all to your readied quarters." Once Ka'mara stepped through the threshold she could see human naval crewmen lining both walls intermixed with the odd human marine and some black clad variant holding their various weapon systems in a textbook salute.

Following the Captain for a solid couple of minutes marvelling at the sheer amount of crewmen acting as the vessels' honour guard, till they had eventually arrived in a cavernous room filled with ground vehicles often found aboard dedicated Turian troop-ships, a semi-circle of rows of chairs were before the Invictus crew.

"Please everyone, take a seat." Following orders every Turian took a seat their equipment tucked under their chairs, with a few minutes spared to get comfortable, the Lion's Captain took to a podium set up before them on a temporary stage. "Welcome one and all to the SSV Lion, I'll be your commanding officer during this, shall we call it expedition…. I'm going to lay down the rules here and now to get them out of the way, You have a problem with anyone or anything up to and including your assigned duties please pass the word up the Turian chain to Commander Nyx who will then inform myself and I will deal with the issue once I have a free moment in my schedule. Please do not abuse this I have a damn ship to run, if anything is going to escalate to blows with any crewmen every Sunday at 17:00 hours a boxing ring will be rigged in here, a bowl will be presented where you will throw your issued dog tags…." I paused showing the two metal disks around my neck. "You settle your slights or grudges in the ring, this is the only time I permit anything coming to blows, so leave it for the ring to settle things. Understood." A chorus of 'yes-sir' told me what I needed to know. "Personal weapon systems such as sidearms will be permitted to be carried, any rifle systems and the like will be stored in armouries throughout the ship, attached to these armouries are shooting ranges, marines are permitted priority use of these facilities whilst navy personal will have to book use in advance, each and everyone of you will be trained on our weapon systems during your off duty hours, understood?"

Another chorus of yes-sir once again told me everything I needed to know. "Now onto your duties, everyone contributes in keeping this ship in top condition including the ships cleanliness, no one is to slack on these simple light duties unless illness or a medical emergency is preventing you from doing so, each of you will be divided into your departments dependent on your credentials, to the naval personal our technology is independent of Eezo based tech, so you are not expected to jump in and know how everything works, what you are expected to do is learn, by the end of our journey I want you to be able to operate any system in any situation, additionally all of you will treat any drill as if it was an actual emergency, if one of you fails to perform you all fail to perform and your privileges' will be put on probation until your performance improves to a high enough standard." Taking a breath for a second I collected my mental check-list, before nodding to myself. "A word of warning, cultural and operational differences are to be expected, I have the personal belief that if your fighting hard you're wasting your energy, the Lion and her crew fight smart, conserving our strength whilst looking for weaknesses to exploit please don't be offended if my crew isn't working to Turian regulations."

All of the Invictus crew nodded in understanding, especially those who have previously cross trained with either the Salarian Navy or the Asari Navy, the fresh perspective on how Human vessels could operate would be an eye opener for sure given the rigidity of the Hierarchy. "Alright with all that out of the way, if the right most Turian's could look to their right on the floor you will find multiple pads, please pass them along to your fellow crewmates before taking one for yourselves, on the pad is a full map of the Lion with a programme set on it to direct you to your barracks with the input of your name, additionally it can direct you to your muster point for your assignments tomorrow, the closest restrooms, the nearest aid station and the services rooms to wash and iron your uniforms and waste disposal, the common areas presented will be given once your rank or rank equivalent is provided to the pad so please don't lie and a final point inside your Barracks you will find several patches for your uniforms, please wear them as each patch has a purpose aboard the ship alongside two dog tags much like my own, wear them at all times, as they have emergency information on them for the trauma teams to utilise when providing medical aid.

"Commander Nyx I'll be personally walking you to the Executive Officers quarters as it is opposite my own across CIC, all of you are dismissed until 08:00 muster tomorrow morning ship time so please ensure you have updated your Omni's with the correct time."

With all that said and done the Invictus crew chatted amongst themselves working out which of the crew had the same barracks to make their treks a little less daunting, Ka'mara grabbed her personal duffle and fell into step with me as I stepped from the stage. "Lead the way Captain."

* * *

To be Continued….

* * *

**AN: Chapter updated 19/7/2019, to break up the large chunks of text in the latter-half of the Chapter, honestly probably writing drunk isn't the best idea I've had. But I did get this chapter out fairly snappish so I'll take it.**


	3. She's Got Character, Character Will Do

**AN: Here's the last chapter before the Lion sets off for Turian Space, I tried to add a bit of history to the old girl but I won't spoil it here, I might expand upon her backstory in my planned WIKI for this Fic. Also I'm grateful of all the support this little project of mine is getting currently, thank you all seriously.**

**Also I wrote this whilst still being drunk off my ass and listening to Robocop's Rock Shop sound track. Also disclaimer: I do not take responsibility for whatever drunk me writes!**

* * *

October 7th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, En-route to the Executive Officer's Quarters.

* * *

The walk to the Lion's CIC was informative to Ka'mara to say the least, every hallway had pneumatic jacks lining both sides of the corridors clearly marked in a distinctive yellow and black striped pattern some corridors even had the Primary Superstructure running through the centre of the corridors at odd angles, making the journey somewhat unique having to duck or manoeuvre around the two metre by two metre thick titanium struts.

Also unique to the Lion seemed to be the constant vibrations in the deck every couple of minutes, the copious amounts of cargo netting bolted to the ceiling, she would watch as a human crewmen would jump up and climb into the net whilst another who already occupied it would drop down onto the deck before moving off to whatever duties they had to do.

Without even breaking my stride or looking towards her I spoke up beside her. "Our crew is broken into battle-buddies, teams of two, one man will run a shift for twelve hours whilst the other does four hours of light duties and rests for eight, the cargo nets provide a place to rest up near their posts so they don't have to travel hundreds of metres to their barracks, they get two thirty minute breaks whilst on duty, where a junior crewman will gain work experience by running said post during those breaks."  
Ka'mara nodded, it was a unique sight to be sure but she could see the benefit having a second man close to the post during a shift, especially in case of an emergency situation.

"I haven't seen anything like this on the Two For Flinching while I was aboard, is this a standard practice in the Systems Alliance Navy?" Ka'mara asked, to which I shook my head in the negative. "It was my own idea really, the Admiralty disapproved of the practice until they realised just how effective it was to have crewmen on a sort of hot-standby in case of an emergency, it's being trialled throughout the reserves currently to collect some hard data on it, other than that though its not really a thing."  
Ka'mara could also see the logic behind the decision the Admiralty had made, they wanted the facts, the pro's and con's as it were to utilising such a method, it needed testing but to do so on frontline vessels would be outright dangerous.

"It's unique to see to say the least, I might even trial it aboard my own vessel when I reach the rank of captain." Ka'mara's mandibles clicked twice, the Turian equivalent of a thoughtful facial expression. "With the citations I read on your file before you arrived aboard, I can quite easily determine that you'll have a promotion waiting for you when you make it back home." Ka'mara was a little taken aback if her eyes widening a little when I turned to look at her were to go by.

"That's a little optimistic of you captain, saying 'when' not 'if' any number of things could go wrong on this trip, we're travelling through uncharted space, this isn't some what was the phrase I heard; milk run." I smiled at her, turning a corner into an adjacent corridor.  
On the wall was the emblem of the SSV Lion, A lions head with it's maw open teeth bared with a crown atop its head, it was backed with a circle with the union jack colouring it, around the edge a golden band with old English styled writing both the name of the SSV LION alongside it's pennant number R-106 around the top, with the words Belli Dura Despicio along the bottom.

I placed my hand onto the worn emblem. "Commander…. Ka'mara, this vessel has an interesting backstory, one which you'll experience first-hand on this journey no doubt, the phrase you see Belli Dura Despicio actually belongs to another vessel, the Warspite which this ship was going to be named after. However with plans changing she was commissioned as the Lion never the less the legacy of the phrase rings true for the Lion, she despises the hard knocks of war and will spite anyone or anything that gets in the way of her mission, I can guarantee you that the Lion will get you and yours back home, safe and sound in mind and body."

Taking a few seconds to admire the emblem that personified the SSV Lion Ka'mara had a feeling that what Captain Spruce said was nothing but the truth, the Lion had a feeling to her like most vessels in any navy in existence, just the feeling was something more.

"Come on Commander we have about sixty metres before we hit CIC and your quarters, it's best we continue our conversation there." Ka'mara replied with an 'Aye Sir' before continuing to follow her commanding officer.

* * *

October 7th 2150 CE [Common Era], 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar]  
Turian Hierarchy Space, Inner Colony Space.  
Apien Crest, Trebia System, Palaven, Cipritine City.  
Hierarchy High Command.

* * *

High Command knew keeping both Admiral Gavilan Nyx and Commodore Ardella Nyx about the situation around the 72nd Cruiser Battlegroup for the last two weeks was going to get their collective shin-plates drilled so to speak, their daughter was after all the Battlegroup's Second in Command, but they knew it would be better for all parties including the families who had lost their loved ones in a short but brutal knife fight engagement with a Bartarian slaver fleet, that they got every last scrap of information.  
The picture before them was devastating in more ways than one, however some small amount of respite was given in that the Invictus could be officially declared only as 'missing with all hands' after the two week investigation recovered the Invictus's Emergency Blind Jump Black Box.

The Black Box was a little known device that had been Incorporated in all Turian naval ship designs ever since they lost contact with multiple colony ships in the early days of Turian colonisation efforts, the devices were designed to be launched a single second before the vessel performed an emergency blind jump, holding the records of both the ship and it's crews status.

What worried the Admiralty and the council of Primarch's was the very real possibility of both the Admiral and Commodore going on an absolute war path with the Hegemony over this attack, no one slighted the Nyx's with impunity, nobody.  
What else was worrying was the fact that the records had shown that the HNV Invictus's Eezo core overloaded causing the vessel to jump way beyond its original design specifications, right into deep space far beyond Relay 314 which had been dormant since its discovery 1000 years ago, the law surrounding dormant Relay's meant that the Council would never permit a rescue attempt.

It would be up to the crew of the Invictus to make it's own way home, not a pleasant thought to say the least, given the extent of the damage reported, but at least the Admiralty to could make the case on the crews behalf of extenuating circumstances if the Invictus opened the Relay to make it back home.  
Right now however they would be under the gun so to speak to justify themselves to multiple families who had lost their loved ones and kept the knowledge from the public, alongside two very irate officers of the Sixth Fleet and the 113th Heavy Cruiser Battlegroup respectfully.

The Admiralties muttering were broken when the doors into the Admiralty boardroom were shoved apart by Admiral Nyx his slit pupils conveyed all of the information needed, his wife clearly shaking in anger beside him. "Admiral before this breaks down into shouting match, you know our policy on notifying the kin of those lost in combat we don't share details until we have the full story, so please keep it civil." Gavilan's fists were clenched then relaxed, before releasing a frustrated breath. "Spirits damn it, I know but this feeling, this rage…."

"Not many of us can say we understand the pain both of you are going through, but we can now officially open up to the both of you and the public of the situation surrounding the 72nd Cruiser Battlegroup, though what we are about to state will be infuriating to the highest degree. The Frigates Valiant, Crucible, Gargant and Haven were all destroyed all hands lost, though not without gutting the Bartarian Slaver bastards own fleet at the cost of their lives dropping out of FTL at knife fighting ranges of less than 5 kilometres, the Invictus as you both know had recently had its Eezo core overhauled by Quarrian contractors, the news is good in the sense that the Invictus survived long enough to gut the spineless bastards fleet further before catastrophic damage was suffered, causing your daughter to order the Invictus to blind jump away from the conflict."

"So, our daughter lives, thank the spirits…." Ardella released a sigh, however Gavilan picked up on the open end to the statement. "There is a but isn't there." A holographic interface illuminated the centre of the boardroom, both officers recognising the issue instantly. "Spirits."

"The HNV Invictus jumped well beyond it's intended specifications, Admiral, Commodore, your daughter alongside the rest of the Invictus crew have jumped way beyond known space, further than Relay 314 we cannot send a search and rescue operation due to the laws set by our esteemed Citadel Council, they are lost…. However, the Admiralty agrees that if in some way, somehow that the Invictus is able to travel through Relay 314 we will pull every political favour at our disposal to see that the crew is not punished by the law, given the extenuating circumstances of the HNV Invictus's situation."

"As a side note, we're going to be researching if it would be capable to replicate the incident in a controlled manner, but progress as you know with untested equipment is slow going, it could take years as we will not be involving the Salarian Union or the Asari Republics in this endeavour…. as a means to exploit a technical loophole regarding Relay's." The session of the Admiralty would go on for some hours, before the pair politely dismissed themselves, to allow the Admiralty some time to gather themselves and their speeches before opening up to the general public regarding the fate of the 72nd Cruiser Battlegroup.  
The pair would arrive home to their eldest son who ran the local academy for up and coming citizens of the Hierarchy such as their youngest daughter, currently curled up on the living room couch waiting for the news to come. "Good news and bad news I'm afraid, Ka'mara is alive of that much is certain, however attempting to get clear of a desperate situation, she ordered the Invictus to blind jump…. The Invictus is way beyond Relay 314, any attempt at sending a search and rescue is going to be blocked by the Citadel Council."

"Spirits…. Always figured she'd be the one to pull off something crazy, but this…." Adrian Nyx muttered to himself out loud, turning to his sister trying to console the distraught youngest of the Nyx family. Ardella was quick to chip in, to raise her daughter's spirits up just a little. "Listen here Mali, Ka'mara isn't going to let something like this stop her, she promised you that tour of the Invictus you know our family motto, she will never break a promise to family as long as she draws breath, it may take months or years but you will see her." The ten-year-old rubbed the tears from her face as she nodded, she knew Ka'mara was strong no way was her sister going to break her word.

"What now?" Adrian asked.

"Now we take our ten pounds of flesh cracking down on the slaver bastards that cost citizens of the Hierarchy their lives, we'll bleed the slaver markets dry by destroying their infrastructure one spirits damned base at a time, the Hegemony has been running amok for too long, it's about time the Batarian's learned the hard way why you never cross the Hierarchy."

* * *

October 7th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, Executive Officer's Quarters.

* * *

Ka'mara had been pleased to find that the previous Executive Officer had taken pride in keeping the executive officers quarters, it was a shame that she had missed the opportunity to meet the previous XO however Ka'mara could tell by how uniform all of the rooms ornamentation was that she would've very much liked the red haired officer with a temperament, if the captains word about the woman was to be believed.  
After a solid couple of hours explaining her coming duties, passing nuggets of wisdom on how the crew reacted to certain verbal tones and what could potentially lead to cultural misunderstandings as it were, apparently a long standing tradition to initiate the uninitiated was to have the new starters ask for particular items from the bosun's store which would cause mild embarrassment to the crewman in question.

Glass hammers, long-stands, elbow grease and sky-hooks were common items alongside a plethora of other odd traditions such as lighting an alcoholic beverage called rum mixed with gunpowder of all things to test its proof, another tradition was the Gun-Run in which an ancient well looked after artillery piece would be relayed through an obstacle course as a test of endurance and teamwork, crews would actively compete in a championship across human space between vessels, official records would be kept during the championship the top ten teams who completed 100 Gun-Runs' would then compete for the Championship Cup on Earth.

Spending a couple of hour to organise herself, her quarters and her thoughts Ka'mara grabbed the issued dog-tags around her neck giving them a quick once over, Captain Spruce had explained to her that CIC was a closed down sector and that for her to access it she would need to present her tags to the marines guarding one for the four entrances to scan until they could safely recognise her face and not confuse it with any other Turian aboard, stepping out of her quarters it was a brisk 20 metre walk to the closest entrance.  
Examining her surroundings Ka'mara quickly realised something about the corridors the same hazard warning stripes as the ones on the pneumatic jacks adorned the deck plates at random intervals each a half a metre long running the breadth of the corridor, quickly realising its purpose as a form of deployable cover, only now did she realise what an absolute hell it would be to board the ship, no doubt various crawl spaces and hidden compartments were scattered throughout the ship as ambush points.

Approaching the marine section guarding CIC the marines snapped to attention no doubtedly recognising the command operations patch she had attached using her uniforms newly applied Velcro strips, which had been attached whilst travelling aboard the Two For Flinching. "Ma'am please present your tags for an ID scan." Quickly following the marine's instruction, the marine in question brought a scanner to the barcode present on the backside, the small device chimed. "Thank you, ma'am you're clear to proceed inside." The rearmost marines proceeded to open the bulkhead door for her, quickly stepping through the door was resealed shut.  
Quickly recognising Captain stood at the war table he turned to look towards her. "Crew make yourselves presentable it seems our XO has decided to pay a visit to CIC." The crew quickly scrambled to attention, one of the ensigns barking out 'XO on the bridge' Ka'mara quickly standing them at ease before allowing them to continue with their duties. "Sorry for the disruption Captain."

"Don't be XO, it's always good to have the CIC on their toes, keeps the lot of them from slacking off too much." I spoke up for the crew to hear. "Who us sir? When have we ever slacked off." One of the senior officers jibed back. "What you think I haven't noticed you playing Galaga Lieutenant, you can't bullshit a bullshitter and just for that smart-arse comment of yours, you're on clean up duty in waste management once your shift ends." Said Lieutenant muttered a quick shit to himself, the rest of CIC chuckling at their fellow officers' expense.  
All while this was going on Ka'mara made her way to the war table opposite Captain Spruce, looking over the screen display she manipulated the 3D schematic of the SSV Lion and got a real in depth look at the layout of the vessel, much like she had assumed CIC wasn't the only secure sector of the ship, Main Engineering, the Primary and Secondary Magazines, Fuel and water storage the hangers under the flight pod decks as well as CIC and most secondary back ups however what surprised her was the position of the FTL Drive or in this case drives, the massive cylindrical objects were placed some distance apart from one another one directly behind the alligator head the other just forward of the engine nacelles.

"Impressive old girl, don't you think, though I can see it on your face that you're confused."

"I've seen a lot of old vessels with some quirks but I've never seen an FTL drive quite like this, it's strange." Ka'mara replied. So, I answered her question to the best of my ability. "I'm not an engineer but I know enough about my ship to get by, what you're looking at is our method of keeping the quasi-wormholes our ships use to jump stable enough to utilise them, in a way they act like two giant kinetic barrier generators keeping the vessel from being blown to oblivion mid jump by the turbulent nature of said wormholes, we also learned the hard way that having two of our jump drives in close proximity to one another causes a type of friction which results in some messy situations, so we space them apart from one another whilst maintaining a centre of balance, additionally the greater the mass of a vessel the greater the demand for power and the more drives you need to stabilise the wormhole. Technically speaking we could weaponize a moon sized space station and jump it around so long as it had adequate power and enough drives to get the job done."

"Please tell me that was a joke?" Ka'mara asked. "No joke, weaponizing a moon has been a fantasy of our scientists for I say around 100 years now." I smiled at what I assumed was the Turian equivalent of sheer bewilderment.

* * *

To be Continued….

* * *

**AN: Any gripes about my writing leave me a review, tell me I suck. Cheers!**


	4. D-Day Reference Goes Here

**AN: Another Chapter done and as promised the SSV Lion is finally underway, I have to report I have drank 13 cups of tea to get this chapter written before my next continental shift at work starts.**

**I will also report I have been Listening to most of Queen's albums on album repeat.**

* * *

October 11th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre [CIC].

07:00 Hours [6 Hours till Departure.]

* * *

Standing beside the Lions war table I couldn't help but be impressed by the glowing reports coming through my personal PADD, my senior officers for the last two days had nothing but good words to be said, the Turian crewmen were dedicated, willing to learn and even with how ridged the Turian naval code was quite willing to be a little more flexible on and off duty, Major Fenix our senior most marine had taken a shine to what he called the Steel Raptor Troop lead by a grizzled Turian Lieutenant Tyber Zaan, who according to Commander Nyx had refused multiple promotions during his career, preferring to perform frontline duties without wasting his skills teaching nuggets.

Another surprise had been the Lion's and Invictus's Chief Medical Officers, both were perpetually cantankerous and drank the strong stuff at the bar so much I'm surprised either still had intact livers, but the men had bonded well and were willing to train the other in performing light casualty duties for both species aboard, no doubtedly to pass the knowledge down to the BCD level for all personal to learn and utilise in case of emergency, with the added bonus of most if not all of the Invictus's medical bay being salvaged before being scuttled a lot of cross training on the medical equipment could get underway.

Main Engineering had some improvements made in the last two days as well, the Turian engineers had been lead to believe that we had no Eezo technology in our space vessels at all, we did, but it was only developed and implemented enough that any vessel could use the Relay's three or four times a day maybe in an emergency it could be pushed to six, but you were liable to blow something important doing so, so with some degree of oversight the Lions engineers watched their Turian counterparts Improve those few systems with a great deal of enthusiasm pushing an extra twenty-six percent in their efficiency, going so far as even providing our jovial Scottish Chief Engineer a few ideas on how to build independent Eezo Capacitors twinned with projectors to actually reduce the ships mass in a pinch to provide an extra kick during evasive manoeuvres.  
Said Scotsman had approached me the following day asking for permission to pursue the idea, even if the system was a one use wonder I saw no reason to deny the man, besides he knew the Lion and her limitations, if he believed it could be useful it would be, because I believed he knew his trade far better than I did.

All around there was little friction, of course nothing is perfect and friction did come up from time to time, but I've had fewer issues with a crew from an entirely different sapient species, than I've had from another crew from my own, needless to say CIC had new faces dotted throughout, I was broken from my thoughts when a report from Demeter Anchorage pinged my PADD.

To: Lion Actual: Captain: Spruce, Liam. ID: LD-30226473-S.

From: Demeter Actual: Admiral: Cutter James. ID: JC-28966562-C.

Subject: Missing Munitions.

Forwarded From: Demeter Military Police: Sergeant: Goldblum, Jeff. ID: JL-25679385-G [MP-99753].

Sir, our investigation into your missing munitions has proven fruitful, it turns out one of Demeter's quartermaster's one Petty Officer Huey Emmerich has been suppling multiple insurgent groups by providing details on munitions deliveries and has been for the last eight months doctoring the records to cover his actions, thanks to the Lions Chief Gunnery Officer we have found no less than four active groups in the neighbouring systems.

Our report will be heading up the Chain, for potential military action to be taken once we have secured more information from the prisoner.

Breaking into a smile, I gave a shrill whistle to catch the entire CIC's attention. "CGO, congratulations you OCD bastard you're officially responsible for discovering that one of the Demeter's quartermasters' has been supplying multiple insurgent groups, well done!" The blonde Chief Gunnery Officer rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as the CIC broke out into cheers and applause for the man, letting him bask in praise for a short while I caught everyone's attention once more. "All right settle down for Christ sake, I'm giving you all a six hour notice, those of you who want to send letters or call loved ones, you have these six hours to do so, we're hauling comm buoys but they will be used to relay mission critical information only, those of you who know people to get a personal stash going I'm giving you permission to make a shuttle run to Demeter you have four hours from when I PA the whole crew, you fuckers are getting a ten minute head start so you better get to the Cradle and commandeer a god damn shuttle snappish."

Turning towards the Lion's communications officer Lieutenant Smollet. "Lieutenant Smollet, you have the dubious honour to announce to the crew of their four-hour shore leave." To which she nodded in acknowledgement. "Captain, I'm unsure whether to ask this or not, but why such a short notice for shore leave, surely this would've been better to have been done yesterday." I turned to my Turian XO and smiled. "Now where is the fun in that." I replied.

* * *

October 11th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre [CIC].

12:00 Hours [1 Hour till Departure.]

* * *

With the Zerg rush of crewman trying to bribe and blackmail their way onto Demeter Anchorage over and done with, I watched my CIC staff run though their usual deployment routines, everyone had pre-deployment jitters their own personal tells, especially for a mission as important as this, we were about to be the first human vessel to travel way beyond mapped space, we had a staggering 15,000 light year journey ahead of us, even with the Lion performing one jump every twelve hours in what would be relatively safe five light year intervals, it would take us a little under a year to reach the Edge of Turian space.  
The Lion was one tough old lady, she could quite easily push herself to doing a ten light year jumps, the problem was however if we overworked the drives and they blew out we had no way to replace the damn things mid trip, we'd be stuck doing things the old fashioned way by putting the crew on ice.

Shaking my head at that thought, I had my attention pulled upwards towards DRADIS when it had been pinged by a new arrival breaching Ragnar's cloud layer. "Identify Friend Foe confirmed it's the Warstar Everest sir…." Spoke a female senior sensor operator further back in CIC, Lieutenant Smollet chipped in her two cents. "Sir I have Everest Actual on the line, as well as Demeter Actual." Nodding towards Smollet, I quickly ordered her to patch me though to them on my personal wireless, whilst simultaneously picking it up from its base.  
Waiting for Smollet to confirm the connection I spoke into my wireless. "This is Lion Actual, Admiral Cole, Admiral Cutter to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Laying it on a little thick aren't you, you Limey bastard." Came the gruff American tone through my wireless's earpiece. "I second that son, so cut the crap as both of us are going to be boarding in the next couple of minutes." Came Cutters own jibe. "I'm wounded sirs, really I am, that think that you think so little of me…. I'll be awaiting your arrival at Umbilical Alpha sirs." I responded, I'm pretty sure I could hear the pair of them sigh and something being muttered about 'fucking disrespectful limey bastards' or something to that effect.

Placing my wireless back down, I could see my crew chuckling away even though they could only hear half of the conversation. "Commander Ka'mara the Conn is yours, Lieutenant Smollet have a troop of Marines readied at Umbilical Alpha, to act as honour guard, we're having an official visit from the brass it seems, put out an announcement informing all crew to tighten up their dress code, can't be having the crew making me look bad." Two aye sirs were all I needed to hear as I made for the nearest bulkhead door to make my way to the docking hatch where Umbilical Alpha was connected.  
Luckily enough a personal-cart was making its way aft so jumping on the small vehicle I stepped off it at the nearest possible place for my destination, walking towards the Portside of the Lion I found a troop of Marines ready at parades rest the Staff Sergeant in charge inspecting his men. "How are we looking Staff?"

"Ready to receive the brass sir." The African American NCO replied, watching through the open airlock I could see the ships esteemed guests approaching, the Sergeant now stood beside his men barked. "Troop, Troop-Shun!" The assembled marines snapped to attention crisply, I too stood to attention saluting my superiors as they stepped through the Airlock with their aides besides them, quickly returning my salute. "Permission to come aboard Captain?"

"Granted Sirs." I replied, that's when I took notice of the two boxes being held by the Admirals aides. "Gifts sir, you shouldn't've." Cole actually groaned whilst Cutter openly smiled. "No wonder I fucking got rid of you, besides these gifts aren't yours." Cole jibed. "They are for when you make contact with the Turian Hierarchy proper…. Reading up on Turian traditions, our esteemed secretary of foreign affairs found out its custom to present a flag to open talks with the council of Primarch's, the other box is Humanities official First Contact Package." Cutter finished, as both aides presented the two boxes for me to take.

"Can I ask which flag was chosen?"

Cutter gave Cole an elbow to the ribs. "Go on tell him, it's priceless." Cole began to glare at his fellow Admiral. "Apparently the more storied the flag the better, you get bonus points apparently if it's from a military background…. So, our esteemed Secretary of Foreign Affairs, for whatever fucking reason chose the Royal Navy's White Ensign to present." Cutter's face at this point was almost splitting. "Okay…. Surely though it isn't a fresh one?" I could easily see that as some sort of insult in some other obscure Turian Tradition. "Oh, you can believe it isn't, it was taken from HMS Victory at HMNB Portsmouth." I coughed at that little fact. "Fucking hell, I hope to god he got permission from the Royal's to acquire it I wouldn't want to be him if they found he'd taken it without consent." A chorus of chuckles broke out between all of us.

"Welp, we've done our job Cutter, god's speed Captain don't go insulting someone's mother during talks with the Militaristic Species…. I don't want to be cleaning up your mess." Cole finished whilst Cutter placed his hand on my shoulder. "Remember kid, my wife will drag your ass from the afterlife to kill your ass again if you die on this mission. Behave yourself out there." I smiled. "I'm me." I replied; he gave a somewhat bitter chuckle. "That's what we're afraid of." Both they and their aides turned and began walking up the umbilical.  
Turning to the assembled marines. "Staff you and yours are dismissed, expect nothing but glowing words being written in your files men." Turning around from the airlock I began my trek back to my wardroom to store both of the gifts in my personal safe.

With little time to spare I made my way back to CIC.

* * *

October 11th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre [CIC].

12:58 Hours [2 minutes till Departure.]

* * *

Once again stood beside the Lions war-table I looked towards Ka'mara, resting both hands on the table I spoke up. "Commander, lets go around the horn." Giving a quick nod, Ka'mara picked up her own wireless to issue her first official orders as the Lion's XO. "This is the XO, all stations prepare to report, Airlocks."

"Sealed airtight ready for transit, Umbilical's away."

"Command."

"Go."

"Engineering."

"Go!"

"FTL."

"Go."

"Main Batteries."

"Go."

"Secondary Batteries."

"Go."

"Tertiary Batteries."

"Go."

"Tactical."

"Go."

"Damage Control."

"Go."

"Medical."

"Go."

"Viper Wing Alpha."

"Go."

"Viper Wing Bravo."

"Go."

"Gunship Wing."

"Go."

"Marine Battalion."

"Go."

With all stations reporting ready for transit, Ka'mara placed her wireless back onto its base. "All stations report sir, waiting for your order." Looking up from my XO to DRADIS, I took a second to myself. "Connect me ship wide." Picking up my wireless, I spoke to the crew. "This is the Captain, just so there is no confusion later down the line, the Lion has seen a lot of history hell she's been pivotal to most of it recently, but make no mistake we will be alone with no support with only each other to rely on." Taking a breath for a moment, I continued. "She will not fail us, if we do not fail her, if we succeed in this mission, she will bring us home, if we don't succeed…. It doesn't really matter anyway. Action Stations!" Putting down the wireless the General Quarters Klaxon raucously alerted the crew to stand ready for an emergency.  
"Helm, all ahead one third clear us of the Cradle, then make best possible speed to clear us from Ragnar's cloud layer. Navigation update our charts and make preparations to plot a jump towards the Red-Line." Aye sir, was chorused by the pair of officers. "From here on out people we're on our own."

Lion's six primary thrusters lit up a brilliant blue gradually easing the behemoth warship clear of it slip for the first time in a week, the Cradle engineers cheered as they watched one of the most storied vessels' in the Fleet make way on her next big mission, in Demeter's Officer of the Watch wardroom Admiral Cutter began finishing up his report to high command, the message would be received hours later which would be followed by a speech given by the President of the Systems Alliance announcing to the entirety of Humanity that they had made first contact.

"Good luck. You're going to need it." Cutter muttered to himself whilst looking to the left side of his desk where a wax sealed full bottle of Port sat, a note which said 'not to drink it all at once' was beside it.

Cutter muttered a quick "Bastard." As he turned to watch the Lion plough through the Blue-Green swirling clouds that surrounded Demeter Anchorage, the Warstar SSV Everest still present near the defence platform perimeter.

Back inside the Lion's CIC DRADIS was blind, filled with nothing but static as DRADIS picked up billions of particulates mixed with the cloud however multiple buoys that transmitted on a Extreme Low Frequency bandwidth lead the way to clear the cloud layer that formed the outer shell of the super gas giant Ragnar, thirty seconds later the Alligator head breached through the cloud somewhat similar to what a submarine did when it breached the surface of the sea's and oceans of earth. "Sir we've cleared Ragnar scopes and sensors are clear."

"Very good, Helm all ahead full it's time the old girl stretched her legs."

"Aye sir, all ahead full."

"DJ Smollet if you would be so kind to begin the ship wide tradition." Smollet smiling pulled a small device from one of her breast pockets, deftly plugging it into a docking station on her station she manipulated the screen interface, suddenly music of all things began playing throughout the ship wide PA.

[Play: Jerk It Out – by: Caesars]

Ka'mara and the rest of the Turian crewman for that matter were dumbstruck as the crew began to bob their heads whilst continuing along with their duties, while others actually began to sing along to the music being played, shaking their heads at the sheer sight of it, they watched the eccentric human crew continue for a good while as songs kept playing throughout the vessel as the Lion continued to voyage to the Edge of the Ragnar-Alpha System, the music being lowered till it was eventually stopped. "Sir, I have the FTL jump plotted." Announced the Lion's Navigational officer.

"Excellent, FTL prepare to jump on my mark…. 3…. 2…. 1…. Mark!" The crew experienced a severe case of vertigo as the Lion disappeared in a blinding white light flash.

* * *

October 18th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
SSV LION R-106, Portside Primary Corridor.

[+7 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

After being stationed at Demeter since the Insurrection had surrendered the crew had a lot of rust to shake off, not to say they had slacked off but their edge had been dulled by inactivity, even with the countless drills I ran them through during our stint of being stationed in system, so for the past week I'd had them all running drills, magazine fires, counter boarding actions, hull breaches, never the same drill twice, but it had done the trick and given our new Turian crewmen a learning experience we weren't one of the best crews in the Active-Reserves we were the best crew in the Active-Reserves.  
Currently stationed in an asteroid field orbiting a mid-sized star, all 160 Viper mark eights were running through multiple squadron and wing level manoeuvres anything from Combat Air Patrols to mass missile barrage interception a good chunk of the Turian crew which were currently off duty including Ka'mara were watching the Vipers from the forward observation deck nestled underneath the primary sensor suite, I'd even caught a few of our Turian crew muttering that human pilots were insane and that no known fighters in existence had the level of manoeuvrability to 180 flip or twist mid-combat to engage a tailing fighter or missile.

Smiling to myself knowing that we had at least one very distinct advantage for our forces to use if it ever came to war with the known galaxy for whatever reason, I'd be happy to inform High-Com to push for producing pocket carriers for our battlegroups to utilise, keeping our supercarriers free for major fleet deployments.

Stepping into the Portside hanger I quickly found myself in amongst the rabble surrounding one of my ships' two deck chiefs. "Chief Roland, give me the good news how are our birds and their nests holding up?" Roland a fellow man hailing from the homeland of Britain rubbed his oily hands on his orange coveralls. "Well Sir, I've got to say the eggheads had almost outdone themselves with these new birds, the thrust to weight ratio is off the charts without sacrificing the durability that our old mark fours were famous for."

"I sense a but coming along?" I responded, only to find Roland nodding. "They replaced the 30mm cannons with the new standard 40mm cannons, also the new swept wing design while improving our bird's aerodynamics in atmo has unfortunately sacrificed two of our bird's missile hardpoints." I rubbed my face at the thought. "Please tell me we've kept our old bird's 30mm guns in storage, I'd hate to have to spend a week sourcing the resources this early in our trip."

"you're in luck, instead of swapping out our birds we took a cue from the yanks of World War Two." Following Roland's finger as it pointed skyward, I found forty fully built mark fours slung from the alcoves. "Smart, real smart, I take it Durandal has done the same in the Starboard pod?"

"You can bet your ass he has; we have eighty flight worthy mark fours in reserve, we can do a swap for swap for a squadron, or we could strip the guns and swap them between eighty birds, preferably those birds being piloted by those from the old gangers." I nodded in thought. "Post a memo in all of the pilot ready rooms, first come first serve for the old gangers only." Roland nodded in reply, whilst we made our way towards the Pelican Bays. "How are our workhorses looking chief any grief?"

"From these old girls not a chance, besides their electronic warfare suites have had an upgrade as have their original stealth coatings and their thrusters have had their economy improved on top of all that." Roland informed me. "Impressive." I replied, only for Roland to chip in again. "I know right? Who knew these old girls had a little more in them, I figured Misriah Armouries stopped producing upgrade packages for these years ago?" Crossing my arms for a moment while I thought about the situation.  
"Pound to a penny says that the Admiralty contacted Misriah Armouries directly and threw a few million credits to upgrade some of the fleet in reserve." Roland smirked a little. "Another case of money talking."

A brief moment of silence stood between us, until I piped up again. "One thing is pissing me off though chief." Roland looked at me with an incredulous look on his face. "What's that sir?" He asked. "Paint 'em black will you." Roland laughed hard. "Consider it done sir."

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: If anyone can actually spot all of my references so far I'll actually be impressed, any gripes however give me a shout on a review... Thanks once again for all the support this Fic has received so far.**


	5. Now Thats What I Call A Close Encounter

**AN: Here we go again, trying to do a bit more world building in this chapter, whilst explaining something that peeved me off about ME's handling with Levo and Dextro foods, Human's eat Dextrose (Sugar) all the time so why or even how something being dextrose would kill someone unless they had a genuine allergy I have no idea.**

**Anyways a little warning in advance a scene of a sexual nature is present in this chapter. You. Have. Been. Warned. Nothing graphic but enough for me to post this warning.**

**Also I take no responsibility for what drunk me writes and if anyone can spot the Star Trek Reference you get a virtual cookie.**

* * *

October 31st 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Deep Space, Unmapped System.  
SSV LION R-106, Officers Pub 'The Crown'.

[+20 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

October 31st All Hallows Eve or Halloween a celebration that found its origins in warding off malicious or even outright evil spirits, a day which has since lost its original meaning however it was a day still celebrated, so celebrate the crew did in small ways.  
Human crewmen could be seen wearing black and white camouflage paint making their faces represent skulls, creepy horror music played at a low level whilst engineering had utilised the smoke generators used in fire drills to produce a low level mist that would sit around knee height.

For any crew that was off-duty various communal areas including the Pub's were showing human made horror movies, some of the biggest hits such as the original Terminator, Alien(s), Predator and some of the more recent hits from the last decade.  
Most of the Turian crewmen had taken to the movie experience rather well, the tension and anxiety as well as the climax provided exhilarating even scaring a good portion, the thought that Humans had perfected effects to such a high degree even as far back as the 1980's, though said effects couldn't hold a candle to the more recent hits but it had given those movies of an older pedigree a sort of character the newer movies lacked.

Currently sat at the Crown's bar, I held a glass of Magners Cider in my right hand, several of the Turian officers had taken the time to organise a get together the last couple of weeks, so we could have in depth discussions on how both Human and Turian militaries operated.  
Taking great interest when I explained the origins of Human Carrier fleets, the great battles that were fought throughout history on Earths seas and oceans, the rise and fall of big gun sea based Battleships, which eventually came to the topic of today.

Stealth and how the Turian Hierarchy's ally the Salarian Union were trying to develop a stealth capable frigate.

Midway through the Turian officers' theories on how such a vessel would be able to be built I spoke up. "Humanity already has a dedicated class of vessel, we call them Prowlers, they're practically undetectable thanks to the technology we pioneered in the 21st century during heightened tensions on Earth."

The officers clearly interested leaned in just a little. "I'm no engineering specialist but I know enough about them to talk about them, all of the machinery on board for a starter has been insulated rubber gromets rubber feet rubber lined panelling, its done in an effort to reduce on board noise pollution, the engines are impulse drives which are designed to build up momentum over a period of time without generating a massive bloom of thermal radiation, impulse drives have few moving parts so their on the quieter end of thrust generation."

"Sounds impressive, how does your prowler mask its presence on sensors?" Spoke a female officer with the usual flanging in her accent. "Same way the Lion only produces a sensor contact the size of a medium-heavy cruiser."

The group looked more than a little taken aback at that bit of information, until I realised the issue and facepalmed. "You wouldn't know since you've never seen the Lion on sensors but all of the Systems Alliance Fleet has some degree of stealth capability, we reduce our sensor profile by making sure there are as few sharp changes in geometry, eliminating as many flat surfaces as possible by integrating curves and the like, additionally between all of the fleets hulls is a thermal gel layer which acts as a kinetic impact cushion of a sorts, prowlers double this by having two gel layers one between the inner hull and the primary Battleplate the other between the primary Battleplate and their ablative armour shell."

"Interesting, what about through visual contact, it's well and good having a ship that can hide from sensors but it'll be useless if some crewman looks out of a window."

"It's not perfect but all prowlers are painted matt black with a sensor masking coating which is ridiculously expensive to produce, Prowlers also have a sort of optical camouflage capability in photo reactive panels, small camera's linked to specialist panels detect the spectrum of incoming light making the panels react to mimic the spectrum, any sudden change in the spectrum can confuse the panels making them behave erratically, officially it's not something we've been able to work around."

"Unofficially?" Another one of the officers asked. "With the way ONI is run it wouldn't surprise me that they've sussed it out, they're not the most forthcoming lot when it comes to trade secrets, but it wouldn't be a surprise to me if we have a Prowler tail of sorts, no way would fleet risk the Lion on the off chance that if somehow we fail that she falls into an enemy states hands."

"A guarantee making sure an enemy can't use your own developments against you later on, I can respect that, spirits a lot of the Admirals and Generals both in the service and retired will respect that action." Spoke the female officer of the group.

"Anyways, have we had any real trouble reported, any gripes between our people and yours?" I asked my usual question during these talks. "Surprisingly few, it's guaranteed that at some point during crew exchanges with any of our allies that friction arises, but even though Alliance doctrine and regulations are liberal when compared to our own, a lot of reports show you and yours in nothing but a good light."

That's when the second Turian spoke up once more. "Being that both we and Humanity have a military tradition going back thousands of years it's easy to respect humans when compared with the other races, Asari are too pacifistic to do what needs to be done, Salarian's operate in hunter-packs scouting, learning and adapting to the situation but never directly engaging in open combat unless all other possible actions have been exhausted."

"Sometimes I think that groups like 'Palavini Primus' have a point, Council commitments are strengthening the Council as a whole but weakening the Hierarchy itself in the process, we have the maximum possible number of dreadnoughts that the Treaty of Farixan will permit but thirty of those fleets are under the command of the Council." Picking up on the resentment of the officer's speech I went for the jugular so to speak by asking my next question.

"This treaty sounds like the London Treaty of old, explain it to me so I can understand and throw my own penny in." Looking between them, they nodded. "The treaty is a restriction on how many dreadnoughts are capable of being launched and utilised by any given race, the Hierarchy gets five dreadnoughts for every three the Salarian's and Asari build totalling six, whilst all of the other races can have one dreadnought for every five, we currently have in service." I nodded in understanding whilst another officer picked up from the last.

"There is a clause in the Treaty that permits more than the stated limit of dreadnoughts but this is a given to develop new dreadnoughts to replace those which are reaching the end of their service lives, the Council can't expect us to decommission a ship before developing its replacement."

The comparisons with the London naval treaty were uncanny to say the least, where one treaty limited the number of a specific class, the other restricted the weight of any given class, thinking back on all of the wartime loopholes Britain used to build ships that were thousands if not tens of thousands of tonnes heavier than the London Treaty permitted, when something clicked.

"What is the definition of a dreadnought, the exact words."

A vessel measuring between 900 to 1200 metres with a spinal mass accelerator measuring above 750 metres in length capable of launching a forty-kilogramme round, a few other technicalities were thrown in for good measure but the big three were there.  
I gave a small chuckle. "Tell me something, what would you classify the Lion, please for the sake of the argument I'm about to give forget she's a carrier, what is she?"

Taking a good few moments to ponder each of them unanimously agreed that the Lion classified as a Dreadnought, that was when I struck. "According to the Treaty of Farixan the Lion doesn't qualify one of your criteria."

It took a moment but one of them clicked eventually, it just so happened to be the female officer who twigged first, bringing up the schematic of the Lion of the Lion which she had somehow managed to download onto her Omni-tool, I have to remember to ask that one on a later date. "She's missing a main gun, the Lion is designed to use fifty turrets, it would be like having a Menae class Dreadnought armed with nothing but Onarger-Snub MAC's, it a brilliant loophole one no one would've possibly thought to counter."

The third officer spoke up from their seat. "It is definitely something our best lawyers would have to look into, it seems to me to be a legal grey area, one which if exploitable would have to be capitalised on immediately, but thinking about it the Systems Alliance as far as I have researched in to them, they rely on dedicated Carrier fleets, it would be a hell of a struggle but if we can develop our own we could circumvent the treaty completely."

"It would be a complete doctrinal overhaul, but I suppose we're inside the largest marketing tool to convince High-Command the validity of such a force, I can see it now our Primarch walking through these halls wondering what the hell research and development have been doing for decades."

A chorus of chuckles broke out, the female officer raised a glass. "A toast to better days ahead and finally being able to circumvent the biggest pain in the Hierarchy's collective ass!"

"Here, here!" We finished before breaking away from the pub to head back to our rooms, it seemed the longer we worked together the more viable our mission became, Turian-Human relations seemed to hit it off pretty well but we still had a long way to go, friction would come eventually.

And it did….

* * *

December 25th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Deep Space, Unmapped System.  
SSV LION R-106, Maintenance Corridor 1701.

[+70 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

Just not in the way I was expecting.

Needless to say catching a male Turian petty officer going at it with a brunette female corporal in one of the maintenance corridors was a sight I wish I could bleach from my mind, but here it was like watching a god-damned train wreck in progress, quickly turning around and leaving out of the nearest maintenance door, I waited for the pair to finish their little session and just as I had predicted both had chosen to leave through the door I just left, both had walked straight past my position I snuck up behind the two and pulled them into a friendly headlock. "Now then you two, I'd like to keep what I watched you two do private, so let's keep it civil yeah, okay, good." The two of them were like a deer caught in headlights. "Now then, I'm not going to interfere so long as you know that if this interferes in anyway with your duties I'll make sure you two will be doing nothing but menial work in waste disposal, now that's out of the way, I sure as shit saw too much in those couple of seconds but I know what I saw with the two of you going raw, shouldn't you guys be I don't know suffering an allergic reaction?"

The atomic blush the Corporal gave was something to witness. "Well sir, we were using protection up until the last time we did when the Johnny broke, I haven't had a reaction since then and that was two weeks ago." Thinking on my next words I sighed. "Get your asses to medical and get yourselves checked up, I'm not going to breach doctor-patient confidentiality but its pretty common knowledge according to the codex that levo-dextro relations have some degree of reaction, I'll have the CMO's write up a generalist report on why there doesn't seem to be a reaction between a Human and a Turian. Understood?"

"Aye sir, we'll head straight there." Both said without hesitation.

"Good if your team leaders ask, tell them to talk to me and I'll explain that you are on medical notice until I clear you for anything other than light duties." Both nodding I released the pair from my friendly headlock, hopefully the embarrassment will make the two think twice about their choice in using the damn maintenance corridors for any further rendezvous.

"One hell of a way to celebrate Christmas." I muttered to myself as the pair walked off to medical. "This is going to be gold to tell Ka'mara, I just won our little bet." I smiled as I once again took to the maintenance corridors to cut through the hustle and bustle of the crew.

* * *

December 25th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Deep Space, Unmapped System.  
SSV LION R-106, Officer Commanding (OC) Ward Room.

[+70 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

Listening to various Christmas songs and jingles as I supped from a glass half full of bourbon with a small meal sat on my coffee table a steel scale model of HMS Vanguard sat dead centre dressed up in tinsel to spruce the room just a little for the holiday.  
Across from me Ka'mara sat with her own small meal as we laughed at the misfortune of a certain Petty Officer and Corporal couple, Ka'mara had been kind enough to push a credit slip with 150 credits to me once word discreetly reached her through one somewhat confused Turian CMO on her personal Omni-tool.

Needless to say the reports would be interesting to read for a little while, with some observation the CMO's agreed that the likely reason why Humans didn't react like the rest of the galaxy's levo species was because human diets for hundreds if not nearly a thousand years contained concentrated doses of dextrose in the form of simple sugar.

Humans in a sense weren't just Levo we had some ability to break down Dextro making us a swiss army knife of a species.

So with future plans to study a group of humans who'd volunteered their stomachs to the cause would be diversifying their meals with vegetables from the somewhat flourishing Turian fauna in our Hydroponics, needless to say the reports that would be transmitted once our next comm buoy was deployed would be interesting for the egg heads back home to read.

Maybe if all things went well, a market could be opened up for dextro based crops to be imported to our colonies for Human consumption if proven safe to do so and the famers who took to growing the crops could perhaps sell the product back to the Hierarchy at a discount.

After speaking to Ka'mara all this time I had found out that all Turian's young and old were subject to some degree of rationing as dextro based life seemed to be the exception not the rule, so new food sources were few and far between, apparently according to Ka'mara to boost food productivity the Hierarchy paid premiums for massive habitats or swathes of land on planets capable of sustaining dextro fauna in joint council space.

Anything was on the table to get the Turian Hierarchy on board to ally with us, the trick would be to present a deal to them that struck a balance of being good enough that they couldn't refuse and being too good to be true making us look desperate in the process.

If things went to plan, I'd have another two-hundred and eighty days to come up with a viable deal.

* * *

March 17th 2206 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Deep Space, Unmapped System.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.

[+153 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

With the usual sensation of vertigo, the Lion successfully completed her three-hundred and sixth consecutive jump, but unlike the previous three hundred and five jumps, DRADIS lit up like a fucking Christmas tree, sensor pings from close to extreme range all unknown, the potential collision alarm rang throughout the vessel.

Without thinking just reacting on pure instinct I barked out my orders. "Emergency manoeuvres, Helm hard to Starboard shunt us clear!" Ka'mara already on point had put her wireless to use as she gripped the war table. "Brace! Brace! Brace!" her voice rang throughout the ships PA.

Outside as the Lion careened towards a now panicking alien vessel explosive single use emergency thrusters lit up the port side in a desperate attempt to shunt herself clear as luck would have it one of if not the entire alien bridge crew had a similar idea and fired starboard side thrusters to increase the odds of avoiding a collision with possibly the largest vessel they had ever laid eyes on.

With barely a metre of clearance between the two vessels local chatter sky rocketed as first responders took to intercept the Lion from encroaching further into their system.

"Helm reduce speed to one quarter, Gunnery have the gun captains ready for deployment they are to hold action unless fired upon, have all AF/AM batteries active on defence only level Alpha."

"Aye sir." The blonde officer replied as he spoke into his head mounted comm, relaying my given orders to his men. "CAG have alert viper squadrons Red and Blue in the tubes ready for immediate deployment, have 'daggers' mounted to Black and Gold Squadrons my authorisation, I don't want to but we may have to fight our way out of here."

"Aye sir." The brunette East-Asian female captain of the Lions air group replied, I looked towards Ka'mara. "I don't suppose the Hierarchy knows about whoever is pointing their guns at us?"

"Not a chance sir, what are the odds that we'll be fighting our way out of here?" She asked me. "Moderate to fair to be honest with you. Smollet open a channel on all frequencies send out our first contact package, lets just hope to god nobody plugged in something that'll insult someone's mother."

Lieutenant Smollet nodded as she made preparations to launch Humanities first contact package, whilst I picked up my wireless. "All hands this is the Captain, set condition Bravo throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Set condition Bravo throughout the ship."

* * *

To be continued….

* * *

**AN: A cliff-hanger what a way to end this chapter, if anyone has any gripes or suggestions place them in my suggestion box, be warned anyone who puts a suggestion in the suggestion box will be shot for insubordination.**

**That is all.**


	6. Steady On Good Sir

**AN: I've been scratching my head for the last two weeks about this chapter, suffering from a mild case of writers block I'm not one to lay it on, so I'll tell you straight I'm not happy with how this one turned out, something about it just isn't keying with the rest of the Fic, **

**Now I'm going ahead with posting this on the belief that YOU the readers will be able to point it out to me, what the hell isn't working I'm going ahead with the drafting of the next chapter because I want to make more headway before the Big One where humanity will make a big impression.**

**Also as a note someone mentioned the Raloi, I was going to use them for this chapter but the more I read the established lore, I believe that the Raloi home-world would be closer to the Asari Republics than the Turian Hierarchy, as the Asari are the ones to discover them first.**

**So I decided that I should throw in another two of my favourite Sci-Fi's from my childhood. Won't tell you which I'll let you figure that out for yourselves.**

* * *

March 17th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Deep Space, Unmapped System.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.

[+153 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

"All hands this is the Captain, set condition Bravo throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Set condition Bravo throughout the ship." The call had come, it was time for the Lion's Marines to step up to the plate, the Special Orbital Infantry Service or SOIS tended to have their gear on their person at all times as they usually had to secure the WMD lockups in the Primary Magazines, the Turian marines of Steel Raptor Troop rushed through the doors of their designated armouries to retrieve their weapons and ammunition from the quartermaster, Turian's would watch as their Human counterparts donned their min-maxed armour systems with practiced ease before rushing towards the racks to be issued their weapons.

There were a few variations of armour systems provided, most Turian's were interested in the M56 Armour Protection System or APS which provided the necessary equipment to operate the devastating M57-D a section support weapon capable of turning any unlucky idiot into paste if they happened to be caught in its infrared sight, with a strong twelve hundred rounds per minute fire rate and a powered articulation arm the M57-D was demonstrated in the shooting range where it shown to hit centre mass without fail at any range between five to one thousand five hundred metres.

Just like they had drilled hundreds of times the Marines broke down into eight man sections, before making their way to the designated muster or choke points throughout the Lion, if it came to repelling boarders the 'enemy' were in for one hell of a brutal surprise as sections of titanium plate rose up to provide cover for the crewmen who stood ready for action.

Up in the main batteries the gun captains watched as their crews rammed red and white tipped two thousand kilogramme rounds into specialised breeches, whilst the guns automatically pulled power from the hot-standby capacitors to charge the magnetic coils that would propel the rounds at point oh four the speed of light, the gunners were situated behind 3 inch plate in a self-contained compartment at the rearmost of the turret, it had been decided that no chances were going to be taken and all three guns on all fifty batteries were loaded with Armour-Piercing-Anti-Capital-High-Explosive rounds better known as APACHE a devastating round especially if it actually detonated within the target itself.

The rounds were filled with a volatile gelatine compound called Promethium Phosphex, the two chemicals were separated by a non-reactive metal which would breech thanks to a tungsten penetrator when the rounds impacted solidly allowing the two chemicals to mix with explosive results, alternatively the rounds did come with a mechanical timer which could be activated with a screwdriver of all things.

Meanwhile six independent super computers buried deep within the Lion's superstructure co-ordinated the five hundred and sixty Phalanx Anti-Fighter / Anti-Missile Batteries, each computer operated all of the given batteries in a single dedicated sector, those being the Dorsal, Ventral, Port, Starboard, Bow and Stern sectors respectively, each computer had two backups in case the primary computers sustained damage throughout their service life, which would take over until repairs or a replacement could be sourced in the near future.

The twenty Rapier Anti-Ship missile pods on the Lion's Ventral flanks remained retracted in an attempt to not look like we were preparing for an all or nothing fight, ditto for the Torpedo tubes we had to look threatening enough that whoever's fleet occupied the system would think twice about firing the first shot, whilst trying to balance on a knifes edge and not be overly threatening to the point that whoever was in charge felt as if a gun was put to their head.

CIC was filled to the brim with activity, reports were coming in from all of the stations, all hands stood ready at condition Bravo, Viper Squadrons red and blue were ready for the word to deploy, their forward landing gear already hooked up to the Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch Systems (EMALS) for a rapid launch from the retracted flight pods.

Main Engineering had reported to me personally to say that they were pushing the primary and secondary reactors to 110% shunting all the excess power into the Jump Drives using a somewhat disapproved trick of the trade to reduce the time it took for the FTL capacitors to charge to near maximum in the shortest possible time, all we could hope for now was a sign that our digital First Contact Package had got the point across, and maybe by some miracle we would be able to translate each other's language in short order.

I could only speculate on how far back this would push our primary mission, but orders were to make nice with our neighbours, and hopefully if they agreed we could leave two communications buoys on the edge of their system, only time would tell.

* * *

March 17th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Montresor Sector, Lording Montresor System.  
The Home Fleet, Flagship HMRS Legacy.

[+1 Hour Since First Contact.]

* * *

Standing 685.5 metres in length, 250.6 metres in beam and 88.2 metres in depth sheathed in silver Duranium armour plating, armed with seventy phaser turrets, 24 photon missile pods and seven torpedo tubes; four forward facing torpedo tubes and three aft facing torpedo tubes, the RMS Legacy was the crown Jewel of the Montressian Royal Navy, one of three in service Sovereign class Battleships, with four currently in space dock being built.  
With the sudden appearance of the unknown vessel in the home system, dozens of automated sensor nets had alerted the entirety of the Navy that a threat existed and that if the status was not changed by the Government and Military bodies within 24 hours all warships were to return to defend the home system by warping in with all guns blazing.

The Admiral in charge of the Home Fleet hope it never came to that.

Standing proudly at 5 foot 11 inches, with sand and cream two-tone fur her lithe body filled out in all the right places, as her husband kept telling her, she donned the Royal Blue navy over-coat with coat tails high collar and ten gold buttons set beside one another in two rows of five, underneath which she donned a one piece two tone officer issued EVA rated under suit, with the top half being white ending at the hips where the uniform turned to a light grey, over which she donned thigh-high female issued leather boots, a pair of white issued leather gloves which had seals inside.

To denote the Admirals rank gold trimming on her over coat around the cuffs and atop of the shoulders provided the backdrop for a silver wreath with a silver crown with scarlet red highlights on the crown jewels, a golden sash worn from her left shoulder and right hip provided a placement for the Admirals most auspicious medals and honours presented to her by the royal family, whilst various ribbons and medals were placed on the right breast of her overcoat.

At forty years of age the youngest female officer to attain the rank of Admiral, mother of one, lady of the noble house of Hstokk and loving wife to Lord Hstokk the First Space Lord of the Royal Navy, stood front and centre with her chestnut hair tied in a regulation bun as she looked out from the bridge towards the warship that truly out gunned, out armoured and out massed her flagship she couldn't help but worry to some small degree, the sensors however had provided them with one small mercy, the vessel lacked shielding of any kind.

Not that it mattered, she thought to herself, as the armour plating was so thick and made from the purest form of titanium on record that even the heavy phaser cannons would struggle to melt their way through to cause any significant damage.

What had given the young Admiral hope however was the way in which the vessel and its crew had and was continuing to conduct itself, it had avoided a collision with Voyager-7 the seventh long-range colony ship to be launched, and though its main battery and tertiary anti-missile point defence batteries were active they had yet to be used in an aggressive manner, the torpedo and missile systems remained inactive and even though eighty port and starboard tubes were open she suspected whatever was ready to be launched in them wouldn't do so unless the unknown vessel felt threatened enough to use them.

For an hour now the vessel had yet to respond to any hails sent by her communications officer, at first, she believed it was a language issue but as she thought about it further it may be a technological issue, turning to her communications officer she ordered. "Lieutenant scan for signals on a broader spectrum they may be transmitting on wavelength beyond what our current communications array is programmed to use." Quickly manipulating the controls to adjust the array settings. "Ma'am! I'm picking up a signal burst on the Very-High-Frequency spectrum."

"Very good, double check that your console is isolated from the network and perform a quick check on your consoles firewalls, I don't want us caught with our pants down." A quick aye ma'am was all the Lieutenant said as she performed the tasks. "Ma'am all systems triple checked, we're secure."

"Alright adjust our array to the frequency lets see what we have."

"Ma'am it's Audio and Visual data ma'am." Nodding to the officer she approached the station. "Play it." Nodding the Lieutenant patched the audio and visual feed to her main display, and though the audio was nothing either of them could understand, the meaning wasn't. "It's a first contact package, ma'am, no malware or cyber intrusion has been detected, I have everything we need to plug the written and spoken language into the main computer, I could have us communicating with the crew in a couple of hours."

"Get it done, whilst you're at it have our own First Contact Package transmitted back on the same frequency, let hope they're listening." Taking her place at the captain's chair Admiral Hstokk took to reading a PADD which had all of the Unknown vessels gleamed information.

* * *

March 28th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Hierarchy Space, Inner Colony Space.  
Apien Crest, Trebia System, Palaven.

Cipritine Military Anchorage.  
[+5 Months since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA with all hands.]

* * *

Admiral Gavilan Nyx stood alongside his ever loyal wife Commodore Ardella Nyx, both had been given time to themselves whilst the Admiralty took to modernising the 17th Fleet and the 209th Battlegroup, contracting a lot of the work out to the Quarrians' who contrary to popular belief to the other races actually received a steady source of credits and fair working rights for any contracted works undertaken, after all, Turian's were a Pragmatic bunch.  
They saw no reason not to hire the Galaxies greatest engineers to do what they have done for 300 years, adapt and overcome; the Migrant Fleet had long since overcome the sheer logistical nightmare of keeping ships operating far beyond their predicted service life.

So why not the Premier Naval Power in the known galaxy?

Even today thousands of the enviro-suited engineers were still visible from the primary Anchorage as their vibrantly coloured forms busied themselves servicing the last of the new systems that had been installed universally throughout the assembled one hundred and forty some vessels.

As payment for the sudden rush order for the contracted work that was to be completed on such short notice, the Turian Hierarchy agreed to 'gift' [See: Sell.] the Migrant fleet with two Bulk Freighters and their most recently retired Heavy Cruiser HNV Challenger.

The assembled vessels were looking at an average increase in power output by seventeen percent, whilst that didn't sound overly impressive, it was when that percentage was put into a context even Vorcha could understand.

Dreadnoughts now had enough power to fire their standard forty-kilogramme slugs, followed immediately by a twenty-kilogramme armour piercing slug on a single full charge, dealing a one-two knockout shot against any vessel it was used against, a feat deemed impractical by the ever smug Asari, and too systems intensive by the genius Salarian's.

Cruisers now had an excess of power giving them the capability to utilise hull mounted Omni-Fabricators capable of forming Ablative Omni-Armour much like the vaunted Salarian designed Tech-Armour which had just been released to the military market.

The Quarrian who's thought that little idea up had been given an ample head's up by the Hierarchy to Patent his work, selling the design under licence at a heavy discount to the Hierarchy, the Volus being both shrewd bankers and excellent lawyers managed be both the first race to invest heavily in the fledgling Qwib-Qwib Ships Systems Ltd, whilst simultaneously quashing any moves by the mega-corps in the courts to shut the company down.

Finally, on to the Frigates, doctrine had dictated that the upgrades focused on manoeuvrability over firepower and survivability but the Quarrian's had outdone themselves yet again, improving the primary drives and drive core cooling system so that any excess power would be safely cycled into the newly increased battery of GARDIAN point defence batteries.

Frigates could double up more effectively as screening vessels against mass missile and torpedo barrages. Something slaver fleets relied all too heavily upon.

Both Gavilan Nyx and Ardella Nyx smiled at the thought, with final preparations and onsite testing to be completed within the next week, both the 17th Fleet and the 209th Battlegroup would undertake a month-long shakedown run, to eliminate any faults in the system before undertaking their upcoming mission.

Making slavers regret their life choices.

And to make sure the mission had the greatest chance of success against the Hegemony, the council of Primarch's had decided to keep their dear Councillor in the dark about the coming operation, by declaring the coming mission as a piracy policing action.

Afterall, with friends like the Republic and Union it was best to keep them at arm's length, least the actual objective be leaked to the Hegemony as it seemed to happen with alarming regularity.

* * *

March 28th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2150 CE [Common Era].  
Montresor Sector, Lording Montresor System.  
SSV Lion R-106, Orbiting Montresor.

[+11 Days Since First Contact.]

* * *

After the Initial week of trying to communicate to a high enough standard between our three races it was agreed between both the Royal Family and the Military Hierarchy that we could deploy two satellites on the very edge of the Montresor System.  
The first of which was a Relay Satellite that would continue the comm-link as we journeyed once more towards Turian Space, the second a Direct Quantum Entanglement Comm-buoy of which only six existed, three of which were locked securely in a cargo-hold under SOIS armed guard, these buoys would provide near instantaneous communications between Humanity and any other space faring races.

Namely the Turian Hierarchy, but with first contact with the Montressian Government it seemed best for us to leave the politicking machinations to the professionals and not left to me, even though I had garnered quite the working relationship with the senior officers of the Montressian Royal Navy, after they heard just what my ships mission was.

Four days later, after some intense political drama on both sides an agreement was made and a formal non-aggression and civilian trade agreement was hashed out between both of our races.

Realising the opportunity my ship and its mission presented, the Montressian Royal Navy's Admiralty requested further talks with the Systems Alliance Admiralty to formally open an officer exchange programme, which bled over to the Montressian Diplomatic Corps once more as they intended to offer a similar formal non-aggression and civilian trade agreement with the Hierarchy themselves.

By the end of it all, the Lion had been stationed above the home world more specifically in geo-synchronous orbit above the Royal Capital City of Pendergrad for a full month, additionally fifty of the Montressian Royal Navy's finest officer corps had taken station aboard the Lion, for the remainder of our journey to Turian Space, the feline humanoids while soft spoken and well mannered were predators first and foremost and much like our Turian Comrades their claws were proof of this fact.

It wouldn't be until the 5th of May when we would make best possible speed for the edge of the Lording Montresor System under full escort where they would witness the Lion jump out of the system in a brilliant flash of white light.

With the Lion well underway and some level of normality achieved I took to giving a full in-depth operational capability tour for our furred guests and while the dull metal grey and industrial look that made the entirety of the Lion's interior was a far cry from what they as officers of the Montressian Royal Navy were used to, as their own vessels were sleek and had form prioritised over function.

They could appreciate the legacy of one of the oldest serving warships still in service between all three navies, she was rugged and rough because it worked, systems were analogue because it worked, the primary batteries were coil guns because they were lethal to the extreme and they worked.

Everything just works.

It was a change of pace, they as officers were here to learn to adapt and acquire the best possible practices of their allies to integrate and overcome shortfalls in their own navy and if things stayed on track, they had months to years to learn from one of the Systems Alliance's finest crews.

Things would not be easy by any stretch of the Imagination, but they had been picked for their skills and dedication to the Royal Navy and they would not show it in a bad light, by bringing it or the Royal Family to disrepute.

They'd rather be shot than let that happen, one officer at the back of the pack clutching the issued pad handed out on the first day they had arrived nervously smiled every time the human officer in command looked towards her, his posture and brown eyes speaking volumes of the battles and experience he had accumulated.

One thing ran through her and every other Montressian officers' minds, he was an Alpha Male holding the title with an iron fist, no one amongst them would question his order, unless it directly contradicted their Naval Laws.

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: This chapter is likely going to be pulled down to re-write in the near future, if anyone can point out what the hell isn't sitting right, also anyone who want's to throw idea's my way you're more than welcome to PM me.**


	7. Everyone Loves a Montage

**AN: It took me longer than expected, but I finally managed to get that little hamster on the wheel to get its ass into gear, I can't help but thank all the love support and the odd bits of criticism the last six chapters have gotten, thank you all seriously for being patient with me for the delay.**

**Onto some admin, if readers want to put forward ideas for this fic, I'm open to suggestion send your ideas through a review or PM I'll read them and take them on board any Idea's used will be credited in the chapter and I'll PM you a thanks unless its a guest review, then I can't really do that.**

**Further more, I really need to either lay off the whisky or drink more of it the end of this chapter had me stumped until I started on the hard stuff and hey the damn thing near enough wrote itself.**

**Thanks again for your support.**

* * *

April 19th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Hierarchy Space, Outer Colony Space.  
Centurion Sector, Dessous System, Dessous De-Commissioned Listening Post.

Joint 17th Fleet and 209th Battlegroup Assembly Point Alpha.  
[+6 Months since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA with all hands.]

* * *

It had been the greatest deception the Turian Hierarchy had undertaken since its founding all those centuries ago, one-hundred and forty some vessels consisting of 1 Menae class Dreadnought, 20 formally reserved Apian class Battle-Cruisers, 26 Valliant class modern Cruisers and 100 frigates of which were of various classes and tonnage, some were of an older pedigree, but they were far from obsolete.  
Admiral Gavilan Nyx, stood ready his mandibles twitched in anticipation for what was going to be nothing but a short range slugging match against 'Pirates' as every race knew, but couldn't prove that the 'Pirates' were legitimate Navy vessels of the Bartarian Hegemony.

The plan which was six months in the making was bold to say the least, using one of the few back doors to the Hegemony 'claimed' Skyllian Verge, a claim not officially recognised by the Citadel Council, the fleet would jump in system issuing a single declaration, surrender for boarding action or die where you stand.

Knowing the Bartarian stance against being boarded Gavilan knew they would rather fight, only he wouldn't give them a chance, at all, as painted on his Dreadnoughts hull were a group of multi coloured rectangular markers.

All. Slavers. Pirates. Fail. Surrender. No. Quarter.

Archaic to say the least but the message was clear, as was the intent; the Turian's were using their cultural right to openly commit actions that directly opposed the Bartarian Hegemony's own declared cultural right to freely commit slavery.  
The Hierarchy with this one move had declared that they were taking matters into their own hands, they had in two very simple words, had enough.

Following such an open declaration, the Salarian Union alongside the Asari Republics could not interfere as this was a matter of clashing cultural rights.  
They could not revoke one races claimed cultural right without revoking both, as the Council could not be seen to take sides, least they bring their impartial rule to question.

Opening a fleet-wide communication Gavilan Nyx spoke with his usual authoritive tone. "Men and Women of the Hierarchy today is the day we declare with one voice. No more! No more shall the Hierarchy take inaction against slavers; it is our cultural right to see those who openly commit to actions such as slavery and piracy to hang by the neck for their crimes, if the animals of the Hegemony fail to surrender the first time, we will give no quarter put them down like the rabid animals they are. They have nothing to contribute to society as a whole. May the Spirits bless our cause!"

Taking a moment to glance around his staff, that occupied his bridge, Gavilan nodded to himself before issuing the order that would tear the walls around the Hegemony's slavers markets down.

"All vessels all ahead full, we head for the Skyllian Verge, let's show these animals how real warriors wage war!"

The Turian war cry of "Ooh Rah!" rang throughout the corridors as the fleet of one hundred and forty some vessels lit up their fusion torches to maximum thrust quickly approaching the tuning fork like device before flashing out in a brilliant blue streak.

It wouldn't be for weeks until the Council finally managed to assemble a hearing to learn just what was happening in the Skyllian Verge.

* * *

May 3rd 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Serpent Nebula, The Citadel, Council Chambers.  
[14 days since Anti-Slaver Action Taken.]

* * *

Matriarch Tevos had been suffering through endless calls from the Bartarian Embassy for the last two weeks so they could address why a Turian Fleet was openly declaring a war on their cultural right to openly commit actions of slavery.  
The Salarian Councillor just a week in office had taken to finding the reasons, finding in his own words 'No cause for such a violent action from the Premier fighting force of the Citadel Council.'

Whilst the Turian Councillor who'd only held the office remained stoic and refused to openly comment on just why one of the Hierarchy's fleets was committing actions against the Hegemony's declared cultural right.  
Now here they all stood before a full assembly of spectators, Tevos called the session open. "Ambassador please make your opening statement, to establish your Governments side of the facts."

The four eyed, ambassador snarling throughout the entirety of his opening statement spoke with both a passion and a rage the three councillors seldom witnessed.  
"The facts are the Turian Hierarchy have openly committed actions that breach our rights! Our cultural heritage which was openly declared and protected by Council Law, on a vote of two to one when we made first official contact with council has been stamped on by the Turian Military as we speak."

"Is this true Primarch?" Tevos pointedly asked.

The Primarch showing little emotion spoke up beside the Hegemony Ambassador. "From a certain point of view, yes, but to be diplomatic about the situation. WE have decided to act on OUR cultural heritage which was agreed upon unanimously when we joined the Citadel Council, when we fought a war for the COUNCIL'S survival."

The sharp intake of breath by the Salarian councillor beside her made her realise how serious of a situation had come to light. "Could you please enlighten those present just what your declared cultural right is?"

"Our cultural right is that any privateers', pirates and slavers caught taking action unlawfully in Citadel Space will be tried and possibly executed for crimes against Turian society, to put it simply so there are no miscommunications…. If any of the stated groups refuse to surrender to be boarded, they will simply be given no quarter as per Turian Law. As an open declaration of our intent all fleets in the Hierarchy have had legally recognised markers as agreed by all species apart of council space painted on their hulls."

Images appeared on the council chamber displays.

Tevos now realised how well and truly stuck they were, both sides were using the law as written to commit to actions against one another and neither could have their singular right revoked to bring peace as both species would have to have the Law protecting their cultural rights revoked to remain unbiased.

To put it plainly the Turian Hierarchy had in one move neutered any possible action that the council could levy upon them to prevent further actions or prevent an outright escalation of the coming conflict.

"We see Primarch, with the law as written protecting both parties, the Council has to be officially recognised as only mediators in this conflict and will therefore declare greater council space a neutral zone. No action shall be taken against the other in this neutral zone, any vessel that does will be declared Persona Non Grata, and will meet a swift and decisive end by any one of the COUNCIL Fleets."

The scream of outrage from the Bartarian was like music to Turian ears. "Now is either party willing to negotiate here and now, to end the conflict before it brings further bloodshed?" Tevos's answer was given when the Bartarian ambassador turned his back on the council and stormed out of the chambers.

The Primarch staying behind all the while clicking his mandibles before addressing the council again. "The Hierarchy Navy, will agree to the terms set before us, we would be remiss to not state our reasoning behind our actions however, nearly six and a half months ago, a Bartarian Slaver fleet openly engaged and destroyed one of our Cruiser Battlegroups along our boarder with the Attican Traverse the battlegroup has since been recorded as lost with all hands, and we are working towards securing our boarder against all aggressors."

The news coverage of the war was in depth with detailed analysis, interviews and reports would show fit and walking wounded Turian soldiers on multiple worlds pushing forward under a hail of gunfire, whilst pirate and slaver bases which called the Attican Traverse their home, were put under siege and taken one backwater world at a time.

The war however wouldn't be one sided by any stretch of the imagination boarders were changing on a bi-weekly basis as illicit funding from the Hegemony increased dramatically, basically paying out blood money to throw bodies against the Hierarchy Army and Navy.

It wouldn't be until seven months into the war itself, before something drastic had to take place, so under the orders of the Hegemony ruling council a fleet of 300 in service Hegemony vessels including three of their dreadnoughts took up position beside the Alpha Relay, which was currently realigning itself to keyhole and back-door the Turian Navy's staging ground the industrial colony world of Agamemnon.

This mission was do or die, the Hegemony economy was close to crashing, as the government continued to lose money due to a lack of slave imports, which was compounded by the fact that the Hegemony were simultaneously paying higher and higher premiums to pay for Pirate and Slaver groups to take action against the Hierarchy.

* * *

November 29th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Hegemony Combined Fleet Alpha, Dreadnought Divine Right.  
Bridge / Combat Information Centre.

* * *

"This is Grand Admiral Trentch, for too long have the councils attack Varren slighted us, today we return those bastards a favour, kill every male, raid their cities and towns, rape and enslave the females, it's time we prove that the Turian's are not invincible!"

With the Alpha Mass Relay finally aligned, the fleet charged forwards, little did they know that in the scant few seconds before transit they would find themselves before a gauntlet of death, because though the Turian's hadn't anticipated just which colony they would attack, the Admiralty had prioritised upgrading the defences of the High-Risk high reward systems.

Agamemnon was one such system.

Seeing as the system itself held the third highest concentration of space dock facilities whilst producing enough raw materials to supply and build at least three fleets worth of vessels every year, two Heavy Cruiser patrol fleets were on active station whilst two more fleets were moored inside the orbital berths, the one hundred plus defence satellites had been drastically up gunned by Quarrian contractors since the war had begun, whilst fifty additional satellites had joined their number.

Each and everyone of those satellite's were in range of the one Relay pointed towards the Galactic South-East, the only Relay in system with a direct line of sight to Bartarian space proper. The initial volley had been a devastating one just as the fleet emerged 1800 metres clear of the Relay, the Frigates and Light Cruisers were the first to detonate as their shields failed to absorb the sheer volume of firepower.

The Debris field forming proved deadly as vessels careened through the multi million tonnes worth of wreckage depleting shields and impacting the hulls proper on those vessels which had forgone any sense of regular maintenance.

Even if Turian quality control proved the better method of committing devastation, Bartarian numbers proved better in distributing the workload, after all sheer numbers worked out in distributing heat build-up, whereas the Turian's had to reduce their rates of fire to stay in the fight longer.

The four Heavy Cruiser Fleets of the Hierarchy had however rid the Bartarian forces one key advantage, surprise and now with the rest of the Hierarchy on high alert, the nearest Battlegroups and Dreadnought fleets were well underway to committing a counter attack.

All the Turian forces had to do was delay, with the confirmation of three active Hegemony dreadnoughts spearheading an invasion into Turian space it wouldn't be long until the Council got wind, maybe resulting in harsher sanctions being placed against them.

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Deep Space, Unmapped System.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.

[+419 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

Standing beside the war table of lion, now sporting a well-trimmed full beard, I watched as the Montressian officer observers took to their light duties with gusto, I could now name any Turian officer by face with or sans colonial markings, hell I'd say I could read Turian expressions as well as any human ones.

Ka'mara had even proven to be a true captain in the making, my reports and personal opinions reflected on that fact, I would even admit it to myself that I found Ka'mara attractive in her own exotic way, I may even act on my feelings when the good commander was once more well and truly in the ranks of the Hierarchy fleet once more.

The Lion for the last three days sat in geo-synchronous orbit of a viable colony world, one of six we had discovered in total, two of which were now well and truly inside what the Systems Alliance recognised as Montressian territory, the other four including the newly named Shanxi would have several colony ships beelining the journey to them using our provided star-charts, cutting travel time by something as ridiculous as six to seven months, by using their ludicrously oversized jump drives to leapfrog multiple systems at a time.

Shanxi was something of a happy accident however what we were looking for was the Mass Relay sat securely at the edge of the system, I'd seen it fit to give the crew some shore leave, before the lion made up for lost time utilising the first mapped relay pair on the outskirts of Hierarchy space.

Relay 314.

Utilising this relay was going to cut out the last leg of our journey, making up for the lost time we'd made in being guest's, using the word loosely of course, in the Montresor System.

Ka'mara had for the last three days managed to link into the Mass Relay comm buoy to see if any information was dumped in the device.  
It was a long shot, but she had a small hope that stray bits of information had been caught in the memory, as all buoys utilised something similar to our Quantum Entanglement System to send and receive day to day updates.

"Sir." Lieutenant Smollet addressed me. "Are we all accounted for Lieutenant?" I asked the communications officer of the Lion, who had decided to let her hair grow out a tad over regulation length over the past couple of months. "Aye sir, all hands accounted for all birds are safely in their roosts sir."

"Excellent, Helm make best possible speed towards the Relay, Retract flight-pods and secure stations for a mass transit, put out a general alert brace for potential turbulence." Ka'mara nodded alongside the rest of the CIC crew as she picked up her own wireless.

"All hands, all hands secure stations for a mass transit and brace for potential turbulence, this is not a drill, I repeat, all hands are to secure stations for a mass transit and are to brace for potential turbulence."

Ka'mara looked at me after placing down her wireless. "How bad are we talking, turbulence wise Liam?" I smirked to myself, thinking through my answer for a good few seconds before replying. "It could go either way, we're keeping the jump drive's spooled which may or may not cause us some issues, let's just hope we don't need them during deceleration, things tend to fuck up when blind jumping at speed."

Ka'mara clicked her mandibles a little in thought. "You sound like you know from experience." I shot her a look that said all that needed to be said on the matter. "Sir, we're making final approach to the Relay now sir." The Lion's Chinese helmsmen piped up next to the female Turian Flight Lieutenant who was now our acting navigator. "Navigator has the Relay been plugged in the necessary information?"

"Aye sir, Relay is hot and ready for transit sir."

"Excellent, let's see if your superior calibrations are up to the task Vakarian, 2000 metres or better Lieutenant, make the Hierarchy proud." Nodding to herself she began to count down. "Transit is on my mark… three… two… one…. MARK!"

The sensation of horizontal vertigo hit the crew, the moment the lightning like bolt of pure Eezo energy struck the bow of the Lion, it took thirty seconds for the Lion to be propelled some ten-thousand lightyears.  
The turbulence was bearable if not a little unpleasant but the Lion had cleared the other side, and not a plate was out of place. "Navigation checks out sir, stars matching up with Hierarchy records, sir, you'll be pleased to hear drift was 1760 metres."

"Congratulations people we made it and congratulations Lieutenant Vakarian for accomplishing a feat beating the current record drift of a mass transit by 200 some metres, I owe you 200 credits remind me when I'm off duty to organise the cash."

Celebrations broke out but were soon cut short however when every Turian's Omni-tool lit up like a Christmas tree, Ka'mara and her fellow Turian's all cancelled their alarming out Omni-tools, and proceeded to display a message in coded Turian.

"Sir, I'd hate to ask any more of you than what my crew already has sir, but… the Hierarchy is under attack, a hostile force of 300 vessels has backdoored one of our systems as of 24 hours ago the Hierarchy is at war."

"Ka'mara answer me honestly do you see our crew as family, because I sure as hell do, nobody slights my family with impunity, so tell me Ka'mara are we family?" I watched as Ka'mara thought long and hard on what I just said.

"I do, I see our crew as family, a family of mavericks and psychopaths and I wouldn't change it for the world." I smirked viciously. "Smollet patch me through to the crew."

"Aye sir."

"Action Stations, Action Stations set condition Alpha One throughout the ship this is not a drill, ladies, gent's and Psychopaths of all dispositions we are at war! All stations are to report to CIC when ready."  
Looking to Ka'mara, I spoke up once more. "You've got ten minutes to get me as much information as you can."

"Aye sir."

"Lieutenant Vakarian, I take it you've got all of the necessary information to plot me a jump." Lieutenant Vakarian gave a single curt nod, before speaking up. "Sir, if I may the Relay on the far side of this system is the Mass Relay pair joined to our destination, if my hunch is right it'll be the same Relay the enemy back doored to access our system."

"Your point being Lieutenant."

"Sir, if we utilise the relay on this side to transit into the Agamemnon System, we'll effectively reset the Relay, effectively locking the bastards out of how they got in, they'll have to transit at least six other Turian Systems to make back to neutral space."

"Lieutenant, do it, Helm make best possible speed to that relay. FTL ready for an emergency jump, oh and Lieutenant this enemy of yours will they be smart enough to be facing the Relay?"

"No sir."

"Those calibrations of yours think you could increase our drift to say ten thousand metres?" She took a minute to think about it before nodding. "Do it."

"Ka'mara put out a general call, all non-essential personal are to evacuate from frame forty forward, bow batteries are to remain retracted…. CGO load torpedo tubes ready to fire for a full spread, have the warheads set to heat seeker."

"Aye sir."

"Alert Vipers are in their tubes waiting for orders." Smollet chimed in from her post. "Sir, 180 enemy vessels are in action, one of the three command ships had last been reported to be stationed just outside activation range of the Mass Relay right on our exit window."

"Helm, as soon as we hit that Relay, flank speed." Turning to Smollet she smirked as she once more pulled out the I-pod of old. "Bismarck sir."

"Aye DJ Smollet, Bismarck."

* * *

To Be Continued….


	8. This Is War War Never Changes

**AN: Hail to the King baby, I managed to get into the swing of things proper writing this beast of a chapter some 5000+ Words I'm not one to usually brag but pushing 3000 words a chapter is my usual limit before I get riled up that I'm not getting anywhere, but here it is, the SSV Lion is on a warpath and I believe what I've managed to get in on this single chapter is fucking glorious.**

**So please don't let me get in your way any further and enjoy ladies and gents.**

**Oh as a side note I actually wrote this one sober, the Heresy it burns.**

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Relay 314 System.  
SSV LION R-106, Torpedo Room.

[+419 Days Since Departure.]

* * *

Sabaton's: Bismarck was playing as the Crew of the Lion prepared for war.

The Old Gangers of the Lion were well and truly back in their element, all four 1200mm torpedo tubes were now being loaded with BAE's Heavy Disrupter Torpedo's their guidance computers already set to lock onto the enemies' heat emissions.

"Hey Gunther this might seem like a daft question to ask, but how the fuck are these torps supposed to identify just who the fuck the enemy is?"

"Simple Jones, remember that Codex had all the information about the big factions, well BAE compiled enough data from both that and the HNV Invictus before she was scuttled to come up with an algorithm to identify Turian naval vessels with something up to eighty-five percent accuracy."

"And we're firing these things? Fuck me sideways." Barked a third Old Ganger who was stood watching the 1200mm diameter torpedo being inserted into the tube proper. "It's a bloody big gamble that what it is, but as the old quote goes: Ours is not to reason why…." Gunther was cut off as the rest of the torpedo bay barked out in unison.

"Ours is to do and die." Gunther watched as the tubes were sealed, flicking four switches on his weapons console a signal was sent to CIC's Weapons stations declaring the four torpedo tubes hot, but they had not yet been made live, once CIC declared the tubes live by issuing the required command on their end would four covers lift up for the arming keys to be inserted into the now exposed key holes each one arming one tube each.

The system of course had a manual override in case of battle damage or a systems failure, however to deploy such devastating weapons in such a manner would be reviewed by the courts and if found to have been in violation of standing orders or out of negligence, a dishonourable discharge was the lightest possible punishment one could receive.

Meanwhile all around the Lion gun crews made ready for the fight to come, Gun Captains conversing over their own channel which connected directly with the Chief Gunnery Officer's personal wireless were issuing orders to the magazines for APACHE rounds to be loaded into the 150 main guns, using a screwdriver the crews made sure each shell was properly set to impact fuses rather than mechanical time delay.

This ensured any hit to the enemies' kinetic barriers would result in the 1500 kilograms of High Explosive being suddenly and rather violently detonated, this had all come about from talking to several of the Turian crew aboard who'd taken interest in the Lion's war-fighting capability.

Small scale simulations using APE rounds on a scale model with a spare kinetic barrier showed everyone who'd partaken that Kinetic barriers were absolutely susceptible to being breached the Armour piercing head flattened outward a millisecond before the explosive detonated forcing the mushroomed piece of shrapnel 'through' the barrier gutting sections of hull plating and exposing several decks to the void.

It wasn't an outright kill, but it was devastating to such a degree that when engineers took the model to examine the damage that they had said it would take a drydock at least three to six months to repair the damage back to regulation standards.

Now it was time to prove that theory right, with the last breach sealed the fifty "three-gun" turrets remained retracted into the hull, as soon as the signal was given the turrets would extend off the hull, to engage in a short and rather bloody knife fight range broadside barrage, hopefully gutting the poor bastards the Lion was well and truly going to out flank and out gun.

"One minute till we hit the Agamemnon Relay!" The Lions' Chinese helmsman barked from his post, I nodded in acknowledgment before turning once more to Ka'mara. "Let's hope our fellow navy dogs recognise a helping hand when they see one."

"They will, beside once we clear the Relay, they'll pick up all of our Omni-tool's transmitting the Invictus's IFF on a secure frequency, by then whichever officer happens to be in charge will offer a challenge code phrase, Spirits willing they'll recognise my counter phrase as legitimate."

I shot her a look which gave her all she needed to know. "You're not filling me with confidence here Commander, Spirits willing and all that shit…." Rubbing my right hand down my face I continued. "Fuck it, nothing ventured nothing gained."

"Ten Seconds till Relay intercept." The Lion's helmsman barked, picking up my wireless I spoke aloud for the whole crew to hear. "This is the Captain…. Brace for impact!" the collision Klaxon shrieked in its usual shrill tone.  
It was then we all felt that sense of horizontal vertigo.

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
HNV Black Watch, Bridge / Combat Information Centre.

[+1 Year, 1 Month and 23 days since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA.]

* * *

Commodore Sidoia Acharius was in the thick of it, thanks to the Hierarchy being prepared for the possibility of being back-doored by the Hegemony the Hierarchy had a greater amount of firepower available to defend the colony world of Agamemnon, however not even the Hierarchy anticipated that the Hegemony would be desperate enough to dedicate three of their five active dreadnoughts to commit a direct action against the Hierarchy.

The battle had been raging for nearly 25 going onto 26 standard hours, the Hierarchy crews were utilising stimulants to fight off the fatigue they were suffering from, however it wouldn't be for another day at least for the Sixth Fleet and the 113th Battlegroups to divert and provide assistance and a day after for the ninth fleet to provide assistance.

By then she suspected the Hegemony would've sent additional reinforcements and overrun the stalwart defence forces and would have no doubtedly committed heinous acts against the citizenry of the Turian Hierarchy.

"Ma'am the Relay connecting to the Relay 314 system just lit up!" shouted one of the junior officers operating the HNV Black Watch's sensor suites. "Spirits damn those animals! This is Commodore Acharius, it has been an honour serving alongside you all, lets make these slaver bastards pay dearly for their actions this day!"

"Ma'am the Relay…. It's being re-set! Someone in the Relay 314 system has activated the pair from that side, the Alpha Relays' override key has been purged, I'm receiving telemetry once more!" The female Commodore's features were one of shock.

"Have civilian's or a Hierarchy patrol group activated the Relay ensign?" Sidoia asked.

"No ma'am, the reading's I'm receiving don't make any sense, the connection is stable but whatever vessel is using it is disrupting the connection in transit, I'm getting mixed information, wait, that can't be right?" The ensign paused his report. "Ma'am unknown vessel incoming, easily forty-one million tonnes in mass, Unknown Vessel is classified as a Heavy-Dreadnought!"

"What?" Sidoia balked.

It was at that very moment the Unknown Vessel made its appearance, its bow easily four-hundred metres in beam, its gun metal grey Battleplate covering the vessel fully, unknown lettering was illuminated on both the port and starboard sides of the bow.

"Ma'am, I'm having trouble believing this the Unknown Dreadnought has no active Kinetic Barriers; however, the entirety of the Superstructure and Hull plating is made of the Purest Titanium ever recorded." Barked the Ensign operating the sensor suite before continuing.

"The Battleplate alone is three metres thick, I'm not seeing any spinal mass accelerator but the vessel is covered in hardpoints for batteries!" That was when something disturbingly obvious made itself known.  
The Black Watch's Navigations officer was the first to realise. "Ma'am the Unknown is not slowing down properly, at the rate of deceleration it's drift will be well and truly over eight thousand metres, correction, make that ten thousand metres!"

"The Hegemony Dreadnought Pride of Khar'shan is directly in front of it's flight path!" Barked out the Flight Lieutenant from his position at the very front of the bridge. "Spirits it's going for the ram!"

In one action the Unknown dreadnought ploughed into the Hegemony's rear-guard command ship the Dreadnought unable to make any attempt to manoeuvre simply waited for the inevitable its kinetic barrier flared for a single second in a brilliant silver before collapsing.

It was like slow motion for all those to witness, the Pride of Khar'shan's bird of pray hull which was designed to mimic the successes of the Hierarchy's own dreadnoughts warped and distorted violently resulting in the on board powerplants violently detonating in a brilliant green ball of fire as its fuel and magazine ignited.

"Ma'am the Unknown has destroyed to Pride! What the, by the Spirits?" before the command staff a full 3d holo-render of the Unknown Dreadnought fifty twenty inch, three gun batteries deployed on the dorsal, ventral sides whilst several deployed from the overhang on the bow, four massive torpedo tubes opened on the lower half of the bow, whilst 20 ventral missile pods deployed.

What had been the initial shock was only compounded by the display of sheer firepower of the Unknown Dreadnought's opening salvo.

Four Cruisers and sixteen frigates simply ceased to exist, being broken from her stupor by her Executive officer speaking up. "Ma'am the Unknown Dreadnought is transmitting hundreds of individual IFF markers, all of them are transmitting the same IFF on the NAVCOM Secure Channel, secondary and tertiary codes confirm…. It's the crew of the HNV Invictus Ma'am!"

"Comms, secure the secondary station, triple check the firewalls and then triple check those triple checks!" Commodore Sidoia Acharius ordered. "Aye Ma'am, securing station now." It took a couple of minutes for the task to be completed.

"As our standing orders state, give the Challenge phrase last issued to the Crew of the Invictus, even if they give the correct response double check which panic phrase is used. Take no chances I'm not one to kiss a gift spirit in the mouth."

Doing as ordered, the Lieutenant who operated the Communication's station issued the challenge.

Minutes later the reply was checked, double checked and then checked by the XO. "Ma'am codes are confirmed as is the Panic Phrase, The Unknown Dreadnought is Friendly Ma'am."

"Get me a direct line with that Dreadnought! We need to co-ordinate the defence of Agamemnon."

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Relay 314 System.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.

[Zero Hour.]

* * *

"Sir I'm getting a handshake from the Turian Navy Command Vessel. Orders sir?" Lieutenant Smollet asked. "Accept the handshake, Smollet send the translation software, I need to know what our allies need to better contribute to the fight." I replied.

A few seconds later Smollet spoke up. "Verbal and written translation software sent sir." I nodded looking up from the war table to Ka'mara I smirked. "All we can do for the meanwhile is kick these bastards' teeth in let's hope they install the translation software."

"They will, I personally saw to it that our technicians omni-tools were used in writing the programme, using turian operating systems code, they'll recognise it and check for viruses before installing it."

"Sir we are approaching the bulk of the enemy fleet." Spoke up the Ensign in charge of sensors. "The order is yours to give Ka'mara." Ka'mara looked down at the console built into her side of the war table, a small key marked TRP-FR-EXE, twisting the key clock-wise ninety degrees, sent a small electronic signal through hundreds of metres of fibreoptic cable.

In the Lions torpedo room, a siren was sounded three sharp blasts alerting the crew manning the consoles an order to fire was given, Gunther alongside four other officers inserted their keys into the key holes which now had their safety covers removed.

"On my mark lads. Mark!" all four men twisting their keys simultaneously launched one of humanities most devastating weapon systems ever built. "Torpedo's free and clear seal the outer bulkhead doors ready another volley lets' get on with it men!"

"Aye sir!" the Old Gangers barked.

With the Lion making its way to Agamemnon proper, following the swift and rather brutal demise of the Rear Guard, Admiral Trentch was caught with his pants down, but it had yet to fully set in just what had happened.

The Agamemnon Relay leading to the Relay 314 system had been reset, it would take 24 hours for the Alpha Relay to 'cool down' and then re-establish the keyhole and backdoor, a full twenty four hours before any possible chance to be reinforced, within those 24 hours the Hierarchy will have pushed through their own reinforcements, possibly a Dreadnought lead fleet possibly two, alongside any neighbouring battlegroups, half of his fleet had been decimated, too damaged to continue the fight.

It was only at the last second did his mind register the fact that four monstrously large torpedo's were making the way to the rear of the bulk of his fleet, he was quick to order four cruisers to turn to present a broadside anti-missile screen for all the good that did, for the sheer size of the damn things their manoeuvrability was on par with most frigate grade disruptor torpedo's.

That was when sheer absurdity happened, the monstrous torpedo's panelling blew off, revealing each torpedo to be carrying 12 more inside them, the swarm of 52 torpedo's began to dissipate to attack multiple independent targets, instead of swarming any one singular vessel.

This would prove to be a decisive action; it wouldn't be apparent yet but this one decision swung the balance of the conflict into the Turian's favour.

Ordering a quarter of his combined forces to about face to engage the enemy, Trentch watch the behemoth of a Dreadnought shrug off the combined firepower of the attacking force with nothing but its armour.

Back in CIC, I ordered the Chief Gunnery Officer to focus everything available to the fore sector of the ship, the Lion's supercomputers were utilising their combined computing power to concentrate every possible AM-AF battery to intercept the high hundreds if not low thousands of missiles and torpedo's headed directly for the old girl.

The dull vibrations I felt in my feet was my only indicator that a full salvo had been fired. "Communications from the Turian Officer In Command [OIC] Sir, shall I patch it through?" Turning to look up to Smollet, I shook my head. "Patch it through to Commander Ka'mara, she is officially acting as the senior official for the Turian Hierarchy at this time."

Nodding in thanks Ka'mara picked up her wireless. "This is Commander Ka'mara Nyx, acting commander for the crew of the HNV Invictus, acting Executive Officer of the SSV Lion."

"Commander Nyx, I'll skip the pleasantries and cut into the heart of the matter, you're caught behind enemy lines and whilst you are dividing the attention of the Hegemony Combined fleets we need the SSV Lion within our lines, we need to form a defensive line one that we can hold until reinforcements arrive." An effeminate flanged voice spoke over the CIC PA.

Picking up my own wireless I spoke up. "This is Lion Actual, Officer In Command of the SSV Lion, I need two bits of information, the first co-ordinates of where you want us to be on station, the second, does this Hegemony utilise fighter or strike craft of any number."

"Commander Nyx should be receiving co-ordinates through her omni-tool right now, the answer to your second question, yes they do, but they charged through Agamemnon's defence with a huge amount of troop transports that have touched down around Agamemnon's Capital City." The female Turian OIC answered.

"Understood, I recommend you pull any friendly sub-orbital support at least three Kilometres back from the city, tell your garrison forces they are about to receive close air support. Lion Actual Out." I placed my wireless back onto the base.

Ka'mara was quick to place her hand over her wireless's receiver, not very well mind you. "Air support Liam, I know the Lion has one hundred and sixty fighters but to get them on station would take at least an hour from the co-ordinates I received!"

"Ka'mara, those co-ordinates are our destination, Agamemnon's high orbit is our target. Navigation plot an FTL jump 90,000 kilometres above the largest population centre, the capital city of Agamemnon." Pausing I picked up my wireless, nodding to Smollet she connected me throughout the ship.

"All hands this is the Captain…. Prepare for major turbulence, the Lion is executing the Adama Manoeuvre, all Viper wings are to deploy, I say again, prepare for major turbulence, the Lion is executing the Adama Manoeuvre, all Vipers be ready to deploy." Ka'mara visibly blanched at the order.

Ka'mara removing her hand spoke into the receiver. "Ma'am expect us to arrive within minutes, we're performing two in system FTL jumps."

"Understood…." The Female OIC responded unsure.

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
HNV Black Watch, Bridge / Combat Information Centre.

[+1 Year, 1 Month and 23 days since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA.]

* * *

Commodore Sidoia Acharius, was confused, she could understand performing one in system FTL jump to join up with the re-organising Turian defence line, but she had managed alongside most of the Black Watch crew overhear something about an Adama Manoeuvre.

It was then that the now named SSV Lion disappeared from all sensors altogether. "Ma'am Sub-Orbital support pulled back by three kilometres as requested, General Katus Sulmius is asking why navy pulled back their sub-orbital support."

"Ma'am the SSV Lion just appeared on sensors and Visual, you are not going to believe this!"

Meanwhile on the surface of Agamemnon General Katus Sulmius heard a crack like thunder, before multiple sonic booms hit his ears, looking upwards to the sky a most unbelievable sight, an unknown dreadnought on a ballistic trajectory with the city, the sheer amount of friction from the air impacting against the hull set it ablaze.

"By the Spirits!" The OIC of Agamemnon's Garrison bellowed as the ship grew larger and larger with every passing second.

Back on the Bridge of the Black Watch the entire bridge crew bore witness to the ridiculousness of what was happening on the world below, Turian news crews reporting on the war fighting on the Colony were recording and reporting live to everyone within Turian space.

Suddenly as the Turian camera man zoomed in eighty projectiles were launched from the Port and Starboard sides of the vessel, followed shortly there after by another eighty projectiles it was only when the camera actually managed to focus on the 'projectiles' when it became obvious to all that the 'projectiles' weren't projectiles at all.

"Ma'am I count eighty, no correction one hundred and sixty strike craft that have just been launched by the SSV Lion simultaneously!" exclaimed the Ensign once more from his post operating the sensors of the HNV Black Watch.

"By the Spirits, just what kind of a species have the crew of the Invictus brought with them?" the Black Watch's XO muttered to himself, Commodore Sidoia had to silently agree with her Executive for a race to even conceive such a ridiculous manoeuvre spoke volumes of their character.

That's when the Helmsman piped up from his post. "Ma'am the SSV Lion is still on a ballistic course for the city Ma'am!"

Back on the Colony surface proper, Turian's watched as the Dreadnought careened towards the city, that was when a message in Turian was broadcast on the Emergency Military and Civilian channels. "This is the SSV Lion to all Turian Planetary and Civilian Defence forces prepare for a high-pressure shockwave!"

At that very moment the currently ballistic Dreadnought was consumed in a flash of blinding white light, the fireball that had formed from the sheer friction of the vessel falling through the planet's atmosphere was consumed by the negative pressure from the vessel simply disappearing from the space it once occupied.

The one hundred and sixty fighters, following their standing orders began missile striking every transport following shortly thereafter by gun running the slavers front lines as they flew between buildings at what the Turian Air Forces would later deem absolutely insane.

Back in the planets orbit just behind the forming last ditch defensive line the once ballistic dreadnought made its appearance one hundred kilometres on the Black Watch's stern, the SSV Lion's underbelly still glowing red hot from her rather abrupt entry into Agamemnon's atmosphere.

"Ma'am I've reacquired the SSV Lion, Ma'am please tell me I'm not seeing things…." Commodore Sidoia, was too struggling to comprehend what was being shown on the CIC's primary holo emitter, as were many of the CIC proper, the SSV Lion's port and starboard sides were extending outwards by some fifty metres each, showing to all of the surviving Turian vessels just why the Lion had deployed such a monstrous amount of strike craft, two massive some six hundred metre long hanger bays were visible for all to see suspended outwards by two massive arms.

"Ma'am I'm getting a communications handshake from the SSV Lion ma'am."

"Patch them through CIC's PA."

"Aye Ma'am."

"This is Lion Actual; I've been asked by the senior most Turian Officer aboard my vessel to offer my vessels full arsenal up to and including her full suite of multi kiloton and multi megaton ordinance, I need the senior most officer to authorise their deployment seeing as this is Turian space." A masculine voice spoke, obviously the commanding officer of the SSV Lion if the callsign was anything to go by

"Lion Actual, this is Commodore Sidoia Acharius, whilst I may be the senior most naval officer, I unfortunately am unable to authorise the use of nuclear ordinance, that authorisation belongs solely to the Admiral who is currently en-route with the Sixth fleet as we speak." Sidoia responded.

"Understood…. Though do be aware if the situation is in such a dire position, I will authorise the use of nuclear ordinance on my own authority to defend this vessel and her crew."

"Truthfully I hope it doesn't come to that, I had one of our rear guard units send an update through the Relay Comm Buoy hopefully the Sixth will have gotten the message that the crew of the HNV Invictus has made it home and will be pushing their damn FTL drives to the limit to get here." Sidoia responded.

"Copy that Commodore, in the meantime we'll have to deal with these sons of bitches ourselves, I have 150 main battery guns and four torpedo tubes ready to kick some teeth in, so while we take some of the pressure off of you and yours, get to cycling your fight worthy vessels and discharge their heat sinks in atmosphere we'll hold the line while they do so."

"Do you honestly believe your ship can withstand that amount of firepower baring down on you?" Sidoia asked genuinely worried on the sanity of whoever happened to be in charge of such a unique and ridiculously overpowered warship.

"Don't worry, she was built from sterner stuff, eighty years of continuous service and two hundred plus kills under her belt, bigger and better warships have tried to kill her. She killed them." Sidoia's and most of the CIC crews eyes actually widened at the claim.

Very few vessels could claim such feats in the Turian Navy proper, maybe some of the older reserved capital ships could, but none of the active ones came close.

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Valkyr System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, Command and Control Centre.

[+1 Year, 1 Month and 23 days since HNV Invictus was Declared MIA.]  
[+12 Hours since First Contact with the SSV Lion]

* * *

It had been 12 hours since the message had come through the appropriate channels, confirmed by both the OIC and 2IC of the Agamemnon Defence fleets.

As of the time this Repot has been written, I would like to report that the Agamemnon / Relay 314 System Relay has been reset from 314's side, the Keyhole has been switched and the Backdoor back to the Alpha Relay has been closed.  
I would also like to report we have confirmed contact with the crew of the HNV Invictus, whilst simultaneously making First Contact with an unidentified species, one Unknown class of Dreadnought is present in the Agamemnon System SSV Lion.  
SSV Lion has successfully destroyed one Hegemony Dreadnought, several Hegemony Cruisers of various tonnage and nearly two dozen other vessels since its arrival.  
We have successfully stalled the enemy at the third and final defensive line, multiple troop ships broke through and have since engaged in ground warfare with the Agamemnon Colonial Defence Force and the Hierarchy Garrison.

We will fight to the last.

Signed: Commodore Sidoia Acharius.

After reading the message all those hours ago Admiral Gavilan Nyx once more in command of the Sixth Fleet after a two-month rotation in the Seventeenth Fleet due to the Admiral in charge being medically unfit to command at the time, had ordered his Fleet to push their improved FTL drives to near breaking point.

The result being that the Sixth Fleet was now a single Relay jump from Agamemnon, stationed above Valkyr's single Gas Giant discharging their heat sinks to better prepare the vessels ready for what they all knew would be an absolute shit show.

"Chief Engineer how are our new heat sinks holding up?" Gavilan asked one of his oldest friends. "If we'd had the old ones installed, I wouldn't be talking to you for at least a month, the Quarrian contractors have done amazing work however, so we've stressed them something fierce for sure but they're well within working standards." The grizzled old Turian Engineer stated rather pointedly.

"Excellent, Tactical how long until we've discharged enough to get our collective hides in the fight?" A Senior Lieutenant turned to look up from his alcove where her station sat. "Fifteen Minutes Sir, one of the cruisers ended up with a misaligned heat sink after our last transit, DRT's have been correcting the issue since."

"Understood, I want all captains to send me an update in that time." Gavilan ordered.

"Sir, I'll pass the message on." The female Tactical Officer replied.

This was it, the quiet before the storm, the fight before them was going to brutal even with the addition of a friendly Unknown class of Dreadnought to provide heavy artillery support, alongside his own vessel, the HNV Spirit of Palaven.

For what felt like eternity, fifteen minutes slowly counted downwards, even reading the reports issued by his Subordinate Officers provided nothing in terms of 'speeding up' time. "Sir, all vessel's report, combat ready Sir."

"Patch me through fleetwide." Waiting a scant few seconds he received confirmation he was transmitting. "This is Admiral Gavilan Nyx, for too long have the Hegemony been a thorn in side of the Galaxy at large, it's time we break the backbone of the Hegemony. Battle Stations!"  
A short micro FTL jump later the Fleet arrived at the Valkyr System Relay, the Navigations Officers aboard all of the assembled vessels transmitting their required information to jump safely into the Agamemnon System.

Multiple streaks of dark-matter 'lightning' struck each ship before they were propelled near instantaneously to the receiving Relay in the Agamemnon System, as soon as all of the vessels cleared the EM Interference from dropping out of FTL all were in shock to see a single Dreadnought sized vessel in the thick of the Hegemony fleet.

Streaks of white light erupted from multiple gun batteries adorning the Dorsal and Ventral surfaces, it had taken the VI aboard the Sixth Fleet several seconds to be updated by the local Battle Network [BATNET] but the information that was being given was outlandish at best and sheer insanity at worst.

The local Heavy Cruiser Defence Fleets and Orbital Defence Grid had been bloodied but the tides had since turned from a clear stalemate to being clearly in the Hierarchy's favour. "Admiral, if I'm reading these readings right, that Unknown class of Dreadnought's batteries are launching two-thousand kilogramme rounds at near nought point four percent the speed of light!"

"I'm not detecting any Kinetic Barrier impacts, not that she needs them in the first place she's got three Spirits damned metres of the purest Titanium I've ever seen on Galactic record, she's taken multiple direct hits from capital grade Mass Accelerators, they've scarred the armour, they've even breached areas were the armour is next to none existent but I'm not seeing any critical damage!"

Gavilan's eyes widened as the reports kept flooding in, just what kind of a species required the capability where a single Dreadnought could in effect decimate an entire Battlegroup if not a small fleet damn near on its own.

"Sir we're receiving a communication from the HNV Black Watch." Stated the Spirit of Palaven's Communication Officer.

"Patch them through. Commodore Acharius, report."

"Sir, we've taken massive casualties since we last managed to send a report, these animals have taken to directly bombarding civilian population centres, so the SSV Lion made itself the most immediate threat jumping into knife-fight range and began a full gun barrage on any and all targets surrounding her, that ship is built to endure firepower equivalent or greater than its own, we have established a secure line with her Commanding Officer going by the Callsign of Lion Actual. I'm having my communications officer transmit both the frequency and the audio and visual translation software to you now."

Looking towards his own communications officer they made a clenched fist gesture confirming they had indeed received the frequency. "Confirmed Commodore, seeing as you have tactical awareness in the System, I differ my Fleet's positioning to your command, make the best use of the Sixth Fleet Commodore." Gavilan ordered as he programmed in the updated software, the Fleet had just received.

"Aye Sir. Sir one more thing Commander Ka'mara is acting as the SSV Lion's Executive and is the senior most Turian authority aboard her." Sidoia reported to Gavilan. "Understood, do you have anything else to report?" Gavilan asked.

"The Captain in charge has a unique means of waging Psychological Warfare, Sir it's constantly being transmitted on a separate frequency, the crews aboard have taken a liking to it, and it has improved our morale somewhat." Looking towards his communications officer they made the same gesture as before.

"Confirmed, carry on Commodore." Gavilan finished.

"Communications patch in that second frequency." Nodding the Communications Officer opened a ship wide PA before patching in the frequency. [Play Kasabian: Underdog.]

"I like this species already; I haven't even talked to them but I can tell that this race has confidence in their skills in spades."

* * *

To Be Continued...


	9. Mutually Assured Destruction

**AN: Another long wait for this one, must've gone through six drafts before settling on this one in particular, I think it strikes a good balance and I thought it was about time to show humanity when it really takes the kids gloves off.**

**Also I'm unhappy to report I was nearly sober when writing this, though I did make up for the lack of alcohol with a ridiculous amount of tea.**

**Please Enjoy the next chapter of Belli Dura Despicio.**

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.  
Command and Control Centre.

[+13 Hours since First Contact with the SSV Lion]

* * *

Confidence in their skills indeed, Gavilan Nyx thought to himself as the Spirit of Palaven, fired her heavy Mass Accelerator Cannon, the forty kilogramme tungsten cored projectile demolishing another Batarian heavy cruiser, which just so happened to have its shields cracked wide open by a salvo from one of the Lion's main batteries.

The Lion was a marvel of engineering the scans taken of the ship, showed just how enduring the dreadnought sized vessel truly was, Gavilan's mandibles clicked showing his executive officer just how deep in thought he was.

The sheer concept of removing the 'keel' or 'spine' of a ship by building it out of honeycombs was in a word inspired and pretty fucking expensive to accomplish, the results however were very visible as he alongside his crew and by extension the entire Hierarchy witnessed one vessel take a ridiculous amount of heavy calibre MAC fire and continued to take far more as time passed.

Something had been bugging the good Admiral for the last hour, something he just couldn't place about the Lion, that was until how blatantly obvious it was.

"Exec, tell me have you noticed it as well? The sole reason that ship is demolishing the Batarian Animals, whilst they're struggling to retaliate to the threat the Lion is presenting?" Gavilan watched as his Executive Officer studied the tactical map.

"The Lion is in far too close for the Batarian's to fire at full power, not that it would matter…. They're set in a blind panic, firing their all of their MAC's on a partial charge to try and overwhelm her defences with a sheer volume of firepower."

Gavilan gave a single not before continuing the conversation himself. "The Lion is in such a position she's exploiting the one 'weakness' of the Galaxies entire design and Naval doctrinal philosophy." Gavilan gave the Turian equivalent of a smirk. "These Human's, have purposefully designed the Lion to exploit that weakness to its fullest by arming her with nothing but short range, super heavy calibre Snub MAC's."

"Compound that with the fact the Humans are using psychological warfare whilst interfering with open communications by playing their music, its no wonder the Batarian Fleets have lost so much cohesion." Gavilan's Executive Officer's eyes widened just enough to cause Gavilan to smile.

"I really like this species, they well and truly are old hand at waging war, I'd even go so far to call them Honorary Turian's."

All the while the Lion shrugged off the ineffectual Batarian firepower, whilst simultaneously killing two Batarian vessels trying to flank her by going for the Lion's underbelly, only for they themselves to be on the receiving end of eighteen two-thousand tonne slugs each for their trouble.

"If my wife sees this thing in action, I know full well she'll want one as an 'anniversary gift' next year." Gavilan muttered aloud. "Struggling to find things to suitably gift your wife already Gavilan. Hah. You've got many, many years ahead of you yet!"

"At least I have a wife to support me Adrianus unlike you." Gavilan retorted. "What can I say I'm a free Spirited man Gavilan, I have more love to give than any single woman could hope to bear."

"Of course, of course what are you on twelve or thirteen bastards?" Adrianus shook his head. "Sixteen, Colonel Mamerus Acillin's Niece gave birth to triplets two weeks ago." Gavilan just shook his head. "You know full well the good Colonel is going to rip off your mandibles and shove them up your ass, right?"

"Has to get a hold of me first sir." Just then the low level music that was playing throughout the Command and Control Centre changed. [Play: Manowar – Sons of Odin.] "Communications, turn that music up by twenty percent."

"Aye sir."

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Hegemony Combined Fleet Alpha, Dreadnought Divine Right.  
Bridge / Combat Information Centre.

[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.]

* * *

Trentch was close to a complete mental breakdown, the impossibility of what had prevented the Hegemony's overwhelming victory against the Councils attack Varren, this was to be retribution for those who dared oppose the Hegemony and their cultural right.

A massacre to shame the entire Hierarchy, instead he and the combined might of three of the Hegemony's primary Dreadnought Fleets were being massacred by some unknown dreadnought sent by some upstart race, a race pathetic enough to not even have Kinetic Barriers!

Out of a force of three hundred, one hundred and twenty had been killed by the Turian defence forces and their established planetary defence grid, a steep price now an additional eighty vessels had been crippled or outright destroyed by a single fucking Dreadnought.

"Failures the lot of you, fucking kill that Dreadnought, nuke the fucking thing now!" Trentch screamed at the assembled officers before him, no one made a single move to follow the livid Admiral's order. "Now!" Trentch screamed once more. "Sir we risk escalati-" The junior officer never finished his sentence.

Trentch had pulled his personal sidearm and had shot the officer in his lower left eye, blowing the poor bastards brains out of the back of his head. "Launch the nukes." He ordered coldly; the other officers now motivated by the fact that their commanding officer had his gun ready to shoot the next man who dared to speak up.

"Launching all nuclear missiles and torpedoes now sir!"

"Spread the order to the fleet. Fire everything at that fucking Colony, nuke it, make an example of it and use whatever is left to nuke that fucking Dreadnought into oblivion!"

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.

* * *

Klaxons blasted throughout the CIC and the entire ship, on every console and public display terminal a small Ionising Radiation Symbol [Trefoil] was displayed. "Nuclear weapons grade material has just gone 'live' throughout the entirety of what remains of the Hostile Fleet!"

"Jesus fucking Christ, a mass nuclear weapons deployment it could only mean one thing." One senior officer spoke up. "Scorched Earth." Another agreed with the first.

I shook my head, these rabid dogs have just made my day, they'd given me all the reason I'd need to end this fight here and now. "CGO under my executive authority, following escalation protocol: JUBILEE, I'm ordering you to load every main gun with KATIE rounds."

Picking up my personal wireless, I shot Ka'mara an apologetic look. "Torpedo room, this is the Captain under my executive authority load the Super-heavy Type 45 Nuclear Torpedoes."

"Weapons unlock the safeties on all of the RAPIER pods!" If these pricks wanted to go nuclear, I'd show them an entirely new meaning of how to wage nuclear war."

I took a moment to myself before continuing. "Ka'mara inform the OIC of the Sixth Fleet, these Slaver bastards have become a credible threat, I'm authorising a full nuclear strike I'm ending this fight here and now."

It took less than a minute, but with the professionalism and the dedication demonstrated today the main guns were loaded with KATIE rounds stored in multiple secure lockups in the casemates themselves, as the Highly Automatic Weapons Handling System [HAWHS] that transported all of the necessary ammunition from the Primary Magazines needed time to prioritise the additional dollies coming out of the Nuclear Lockup over those which were carrying the conventional rounds already in transit.

The Torpedo Room in the lower half of the bow of the Lion watched as four Super-Heavy Type 45 nuclear Torpedoes were pneumatically lifted and pushed into the four torpedo tubes, Gunther couldn't help but shake his head.

"To think these assholes have pushed the Captain to such a point he's authorising a total nuclear strike, and not the retaliatory kind either."

"It's them or us Gunther and each and every time the Captain will pick us, no hesitation, he'll end whoever becomes too much of a threat, plus our new Turian allies will need to know we can and will end a threat."

Meanwhile the nuclear warheads of all eight hundred 120 kiloton nuclear missiles were activated, their status relayed back to the weapons stations deep inside the Lion proper as each pod swivelled to various angles to present the maximum possible spread for a full scale nuclear launch.

Back in CIC confirmations were coming at me in rapid fire, picking up my wireless I nodded to Smollet who patched me throughout the ship. "This is the Captain, seal all blast-doors throughout the ship, switch to Independent Auxiliary Power [IAP] and secure all stations, brace for hard contact. This is not a drill."

The two grouchy CMO's of the Lion realising the severity of what was to come issued their standing orders, authorising the trauma stations placed throughout the ship to dispense anti-radiation medication and sterilisation field generators, they had the junior and senior medical staff ready for a full mass casualty situation.

The well and truly steeled themselves, the crew of the Lion had been well and truly lucky that the worst casualties currently were some poor chef who'd been burned when a gas line exploded in one of the main galleys, dozens of concussions and hundreds of minor cuts and some severe sprains.

That was going to change, come what may a lot of if not the entirety of the main gun crews were going to be exposed to lethal doses of radiation.

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.  
Command and Control Centre.

* * *

"Sir Hierarchy High Command is reporting that the Turian 11th Fleet is currently on station in the Valkyr System, they're thirty minutes out sir." One of the Spirit of Palaven's senior communications officers reported, Gavilan nodded his head in response. "Excellent, we have done the Hierarchy proud this day, special commendations to Commodore Sidoia Acharius, expect you and yours to receive medals for your displays of valour today." Gavilan however was cut off, when an alarm was sounded throughout the ship.

"Status Report!" Gavilan barked, only for the Junior Sensor Operator to speak up. "Sir the Batarian Fleet has armed its nuclear weapons, Sir, even the nuclear arsenals aboard the wreckage's have gone live!" Gavilan couldn't believe it, the Batarian's were well and truly going to escalate the war to Total War, were they insane?

Gavilan was about to issue the order to arm the Sixth Fleets own nuclear arsenal when his Daughters personal Omni-Tool Comms pinged his own, flicking his wrist. "Ka'mara you -"

"Father listen there is no time, Captain Liam Spruce, Lion Actual has under his own Executive Authority authorised a full nuclear strike against what is now deemed by the Human Conventions of War a credible threat to sentient life…." Just then the Spirit of Palaven's alarms went off once more. "Sir, the SSV Lion has just armed its own nuclear wea-pons. By the Spirits! Just how many nuclear weapons are aboard that thing, I count eight hundred 120 kiloton missiles, four 150 megaton nuclear torpedoes…."

"What is it Lieutenant?" Gavilan asked the now gawping officer. "Sir, this is insanity, pure insanity, every one of the Lion's Main batteries have just loaded twenty kiloton nuclear rounds!"

"What!?" Gavilan shouted in shock, looking back to his Omni-Tool Gavilan had to wonder just what in the name of all of the Spirits, Gods, Goddesses and all that was Holy needed that much overkill for a single Human vessel to necessitate carrying such a ridiculous amount of nuclear ordinance. "Father you need to be ready to intercept whatever gets past us, we'll do our best to intercept as many nuclear weapons as possible but even the Lion has her limits."

"U-understood." Gavilan's Omni-Tool deactivated, leaving both he and his staff in a state of shock, shaking his head Gavilan began to issue his orders. "Order the entirety of the Sixth Fleet and all attached elements to form a broadside defensive screen, not one nuke make it past us, use your ships themselves to block the things if you have to!"

Meanwhile on Agamemnon proper the entirety of the Lion's Viper wings continued to provide CAS and interception duties to assist the Turian defenders some even providing escorts for emergency vehicles, such as hover-ambulances and troop transporters, when each and everyone of the one hundred and sixty strong force of Viper's received a single message. Bandersnatch. Bandersnatch. Bandersnatch. It was the Systems Alliance Codeword for an immediate mass nuclear strike.

Flight Captain Henry Varro, alongside his three peer officers could only voice their shock with a single word.

"Shit."

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: I thought about doing another 5000+ word chapter but I thought no, my fans would prefer another lovingly placed cliff hanger and build some suspense for the up coming finale.**


	10. The Hard Knocks of War

**AN: Now this is going to sound stupid but hear me out guys and girls, writing this took a liberal amount of Strongbow cider, at least a combined six fingers worth of Monkey Shoulder whisky and listening to my Nostalgia Playlist on iTunes, which includes hits such as ****Power Rangers Redux - Go! Go! Power Rangers! (Instrumental), the Airwolf themesong, the OG Knight Rider themesong, the OG Thundercats themesong (Instrumental) and god only knows what other 80's and 90's chesse.**

**But anyways I digress, the plot is moving along and I want to thank each and everyone of you, the fans, for taking the time out of your lives to read something a West-Yorkshireman from jolly grey England wrote whilst intoxicated and listening to questionable music choices.**

**Also I'd like to state for the record that I am an inconsistant writer and I am looking for a Beta to make sure that everything stays upto par, I'm also going to ask anyone with a legitimate thought be it the plot or a general critisisim on how the story should progress to hit me up with a PM.**

**Thanks for taking the time to read this ramble of mine.**

**See you on that bounce!**

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Hegemony Combined Fleet Alpha, Dreadnought Divine Right.  
Bridge / Combat Information Centre.

[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.]

* * *

[Play: Le Castle Vania - John Wick Medley.]  
Vice Admiral Mehalek was something of a radical in Batarian culture, while he and his family owned slaves, they were well kept after and were never punished maliciously in a flagrant and public manor, he was a loving husband who remained loyal to his admittedly politically married wife, finding concubines to be of bad taste.

He was a father who loved all of his children equally with each of them set to inherit equal portions of his acquired wealth and owned lands, most of all he was a true patriot, a man who realised an internal threat when he saw one.

Admiral Trentch had just become one such threat, Mehalek's dominant hand was fingering the safety strap holding his sidearm safely in its holster, Mehalek's position gave him some level of protection he was after all the unnamed political officer.

He could take action, he would however have to guarantee two kill shots before he did, Trentch would be an easy kill shot he stood directly behind the man, just close enough to raise his sidearm within the Kinetic barrier the rabid Admiral donned at all times.

The problem was the named political officer supporting the Admirals actions by not taking action against him, the NPO knew full well that an escalation to total war, was unacceptable, the man however stood towards the front of the bridge.

The paranoid bastard was also wearing a kinetic barrier.

The problem lied in the fact Mehalek was not donning his own kinetic barrier, but if he didn't take action the Hegemony was well and truly going to be crushed, not just by the Turian's, but by the greater galactic community as a whole.

Steeling himself, Mehalek activated his omni-tool as he drew his sidearm and before the Admiral or any of the crew could react to meet a threat, they never truly expected Mehalek blew the Admirals brains out. "As the Hegemonies UNPO I declare the Admirals orders to be an act of treason! Long live the Hegemony!"

Mehalek took aim at the NPO and began firing multiple rounds into the mans kinetic barrier, rounds ricocheted off the visible barrier as it was struck by grain sized mass accelerated rounds, the panic caused had left the NPO flat footed, struggling to pull his own sidearm to shoot at the threat that stood some ways towards the back of the bridge.

In their panic and pandemonium nobody paid attention to the sensor suites as they alarmed out from detecting a massive number of nuclear weapons activating on the unknown dreadnought, the open line from the vice admiral had been transmitting his actions to the fleet as a whole.

They had all missed it initially.

Until one junior officer noticed it and announced it fleetwide. "Enemy dreadnought has gone nuclear!" That caught every officers attention.  
In just a scant few moments thanks to the Vice Admirals' actions the Batarian fleet had lost its initiative, then it dawned on all of those who could see the sensor readings just how large of a nuclear arsenal the unknown dreadnought was carrying.

Unfortunately for Mehalek his eye looked away for one single second and that was all it took, the panicked NPO fired once, it was a crack shot, the vice admiral dropped like a puppet with his strings cut.

"Treasonous cur!" the NPO spat at the corpse of the fallen vice admiral. "Now fire the nuclear arsenal." He barked towards the stunned crew. "No sir. If we fire, we are all dea-." The NPO following the late admirals actions shot the disobedient officer. "Do. It. Now. I will see my line avenged."

The NPO with emotions flaring had just given up on just why he had given the Admiral his silent blessing. "No." Another junior officer stood only to be silenced by another gunshot. "Traitors all of you!"

Activating his personal omni-tool he quickly overwrote the weapons station interface and remotely fired the Divine Right's nuclear weapons.

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.

* * *

"Sporadic nuclear weapons launch! Half of the enemy fleet has launched Nuclear Ballistic Weapons; the other half of the enemy fleet have killed their nukes in the tubes sir!"

"Vampire! Vampire! Vampire! Intercepting with CIWS!" The Lion's CGO barked out, my hands gripped the war table, my knuckles turning white, the war tables display automatically marking the vessels which had launched their nuclear weapons as priority targets.

My next action could quite possibly see me court marshalled, the Batarian's had however proven themselves to be too much of a threat, Holding my wireless a few inches from my face I made my decision. "This is the Captain, fire at will, I repeat, fire at will!"

The vibrations I could feel throughout the ship told me all I needed to know.

Meanwhile the sun was beginning to set on Agamemnon, the one hundred and sixty strong viper complement had effectively neutered any armour support the pirates, slavers or mercenary groups had managed to deploy into the city.

That wasn't to say that the Turian forces on the ground had it easy, but it sure had levelled the field some more, it was at that very moment the fading light became blinding in one single moment.

Looking up one would briefly see a second sun, it didn't take a genius to figure out the fact that a massive nuclear strike had occurred, the miniature sun quickly dissipated the electro-magnetic pulse was so massive that even though it took minutes to travel to Agamemnon proper, the unshielded civilian grade electronics began to short out, flicker or outright blow out.

Bathing some sectors of the city in a darkness that would require any further fighting to be undertaken with low light aids such as night vision optics or thermal optics.

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.  
Command and Control Centre.

* * *

It had been Half an hour since the SSV Lion had completely and utterly turned the Batarian Fleets to nothing more than dust and echoes the eleventh fleet had just joined the defensive line, word had come though the Admiral in command of the Eleventh that two reserve fleets were being pushed into service to make up for the losses incurred during the Fight for Agamemnon.

"Communications make contact with the SSV Lion, it's time I had a face to face with our friends." The call made was curt and to the point, the SSV Lion had given a set of instructions and a set of codes for the internal flight pod batteries to recognise the shuttles and their escorts as friendlies.

Within ten minutes Admiral Gavilan Nyx and his aide alongside two squads of Turian Cabals were en-route to the galaxies most durable dreadnought on record.

"Gavilan watched through the open doors of the cockpit as his shuttle approached the maw that was the portside flight pod. "This is Shuttle Tiberius we're transmitting codes and requesting clearance to land."

"Shuttle Tiberius we're ready to receive authentication codes now, please don't deviate from your flight path…. Codes are good proceed to Deck Lifts B-1 and B-2, both will be marked with strobing lights call the ball."

"I have the Ball."

Gavilan had to admit he was more than a little excited to see what made the Lion so unique, it's durability was unrivalled, not even the Quarrians' contracted to produce the next generation of Hierarchy Dreadnoughts could compete with what the Humans had produced.

And he was going to be the first official point of contact between Human Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy, unofficially that honour remained with his daughter, the sheer elation he felt hearing her voice was a feeling few could comprehend let alone describe.

The Lift was surprisingly fast considering it only took sixty seconds from start to finish and his eyes could only widen seeing the airlock hanger blast door slide aside to present the Admiral an honour guard.

Alongside a ships band of all things. [Play: The Throne Room and End Title – John Williams.] The music was in stark contrast to what the Lion was playing on the secondary communications channel, but it was no less impressive, considering the band's song was something inspirational to listen to.

It was like a song of triumph.

And considering the feats of the Lion and her crew, alongside Agamemnon's initial defence force it seemed somewhat fitting, eyeing the rank and file assembled he noticed Turian Marines mixed in with Human Marines, Turian Sailors beside their human Counterparts each standing shoulder to shoulder as equals, brothers and sisters each of them.

In fact, for a Turian crew to mix in as they had, it was a cultural acknowledgement that they truly believed that Humans should be treat like citizens of the Hierarchy proper, something the council of Primarch's truly believed would never come to pass.

Looking towards the centre of the room stood two officers, one a human male dressed in black with gold trims a sash looped from his right shoulder to his left hip and golden tassels hung and looped under his right armpit, insignias were on his collar and shoulders.  
His wrists had several gold bands with the uppermost band having a loop, it was a unique way to identify rank, but Gavilan knew it held cultural and historical meaning, his left chest adorned several colourful patches probably denoting campaigns or minor awards.

But the three medals adorned proudly on his chest caught the Admirals eye more than anything, Turian vision being much sharper at longer ranges he could see the embossed lettering. Long Service and Good Conduct medal followed by an Accumulated Campaigns Service medal and a Distinguished Service Order medal.

His daughter stood donning the Turian equivalent of an officers dress, it was a form fitting suit with a scapula adorned with traditional Turian markings and awards her arms were bare aside from two sets of traditional leather criss-crossing bindings that covered her forearms, the same bindings were on her shins wrapping around her calves.

A navy sash looped from her right shoulder to left hip adorned with medals, awards and given honours very few officers of equivalent rank held as many as his daughter adorned with pride.

The pair were quick to approach him, turning to the Officer Commanding the SSV Lion he gave and received a salute from the surprisingly 'Asari' looking alien. "Permission to board Captain."

"Permission Granted Admiral." As soon as he stepped from his Shuttle Gavilan was greeted by, the good captain barking out. "Admiral on the deck. Honour guard present arms!" The entire guard saluted the Admiral in perfect sync, all the while the band continued to play in the background.

Gavilan Saluted them all in return. "Admiral before we begin may I address everyone present?" The Human captain made a gesture. "Please Admiral."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the SSV Lion and the HNV Invictus, it is with great pride I welcome our lost sons and daughters home, as it is only right you shall each be awarded for your bravery and your unflinching loyalty to the Hierarchy, I also want to thank the crew of this fine vessel, I and the Hierarchy owe you a personal debt."

Gavilan took a second to let that information settle in. "Once official contact between the Hierarchy and the Systems Alliance is made I will personally be requesting that you all receive Turian Medals and Honours for your actions this day. We honour our debts." Saluting the assembled guard once more the Admiral and his guard made their way towards the arms which connected the pods to the main body of the SSV Lion.

It took fifteen minutes for everyone to get settled in the senior officers club, two lieutenants one Human and one Turian already hard at work serving alcohol and snacks, whilst we had gotten to some casual talk about the Lion and her capabilities, we were waiting for a bunch of junior rates to finish reorganising the tables and putting the fine china on show.

I smiled when the Lion's CAG walked in with an escort to present two boxes to me personally, two boxes which had been stored in my personal safe for the entire journey, aside from myself, Ka'mara, her father and his entourage consisting of his aide and guards, the senior Montressian officers were present to begin the talks to officially initiate first contact with their Turian 'neighbours' the word of course being relative, after all we were dealing with a fuck ton of space, even if said space looked minuscule on a Galactic map.

Ringing my glass to catch everyone's attention, I addressed everyone in the room. "Before anything else is said, while we are celebrating our victories here and now, let it be said that the fight is far from over, men, women and children are still fighting on the ground, so let it be known here and now that this gathering is being used to expedite the signing of a mutual relief, non-aggression and defensive pact, this is not the official ceremony in us offering a full alliance that will have to come to pass at a later date when the enemy is no longer laying siege to the population of Agamemnon and their stalwart defenders, be they civilian, civil or military in nature….."

I gave a small pause to let the information sink in. "That being said a certain level of decorum must be presented in any signing of any official documentation between two or in this case three peoples."

On the table three matching documents were laid on the table, each needed to be signed by three representatives and witnessed by three others, placing the two packages in the centremost of the table I lifted their lids.

"Admiral Gavilan Nyx. On behalf of Humanity, the Systems Alliance, Earth and all her colonies I wish to present two 'gifts' the first, a full first contact package with a full historical record of Humanity and our origins, the second I would like to present a flag."

Lifting the immaculately folded weathered and worn white ensign, from its container. "This Admiral Nyx is the Royal Navy Ensign, it is a flag which belonged to our oldest commissioned vessel in the Systems Alliance Navy, HMS Victory."

Gavilan took the flag in his hands, looking towards me he asked. "May I?" I gave him a nod, opening the flag between himself and his aide, they opened it fully, the flag when opened was somewhat surprisingly the right orientation.

"Simplistic yet striking I must say that the Hierarchy will be more than proud to display this flag in the atrium of the Capital Building on Palaven, just how old is this HMS Victory?" I smiled. "Admiral Gavilan HMS Victory is four hundred and twenty nine years old, she's currently berthed at dry-dock two in His Majesties Naval Base Portsmouth, open to the public for tours, she served with distinction during her active service until she was retired, she later survived between the years of nineteen fourteen to nineteen forty-five devastating attacks that sent most other modern vessels for the time to be sea bed or to be scrapped."

"I'll be sure to pay such a vessel a visit before I die, I must say that your people have a naval tradition as strong as our own, take pride you are in an exclusive gathering." Small chuckles broke out. "Please, Admiral after you, once this signing has been done and witnessed, I can officially offer you, our assistance by putting my compliment of marines, their attached armour and air elements on the ground."

With the decorum and pomp done with, I let the Montressian observers introduce themselves fully without myself interfering with the talks nothing could be pinned against the Systems Alliance if things didn't quite work out.

Stepping up to one of the nearby intercoms I had Smollet patch me through to the medical bay for an update on the Lion's gun crews, it was somewhat fortunate that even though they had all suffered massive doses from radiation exposure the armour had done more than an excellent job at keeping the crews from cooking in their own juices.

Though it wasn't without its price all of them would suffer with debilitating and often times outright crippling bouts of pain, most would die from cancer in their later lives others much earlier, I would have to live with the fact it was my call which put them all in this position.

Half an hour later the Montressian-Turian talks had ended both officers smiling and saluting one another, things seemed to be on the up and up.

Gavilan was quick to approach me asking only a single question. "Captain, just how many marines can you spare?" I smiled….

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: There is a not so subtle Star Wars reference in here, if you caught it well done, you're as much a nerd for all things Star Wars as I am, that makes me a happy guy.**

**Thank you all for 13.5K views, a special thanks to the 151 of you who've decided to follow me on this jorney, as well as the 104 of you who favorited this hot mess and I can't help but smile at the 39 reviews that have been left so others know what they are getting into.**

**Enough of this sappy crap, expect a follow on sometime soon, I'm knackard and going to hit the hay in the meantime enjoy the fact I left you all on another cliffhanger, a pretty naff one but a cliffhanger none the less.**

**GRLS signing off.**


	11. Its Not Over 'Till The Fat Lady Sings

**AN: Sorry this one took so long to get out, it's been a while but this is on me, got Death Stranding and have tried to get 100% trophies, what a mistake that was, all I have to say is Mads Mikkelsen is glorious in that game, the pshycological twists and turns, by no stretch of the imagination is it an action game, like the ever vaunted Kojima era of Metal Gears but it has that Kojima edge to it and I love it.**

**As a side note I'm planning something of a Death Stranding Fanfic, its just in its infancy and I'm not in a rush to get it done, but expect an update on that whenever I make a breakthrough in the future.**

**Anyways, I wrote this chapter sober, shocker I know, I hope you lot like my selection of music for this chapter, it took me a while to go through my I-tunes library to find the music that got me hype to write this one.**

**Please Enjoy.**

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
The Capital city of Agamemnon, Pelican Echo-419.

* * *

Flight Lieutenant Carol 'Foe-Hammer' Rawley expertly flew between the capital city's multitude of skyscrapers, leading a flight of three Pelicans en-route to deliver six sections of some of the Systems Alliance's finest ground-pounders intermixed with sections from Steel Raptor Troop, alongside their Three Jackal IFV's which were underslung from the aft overhang acting as their armour support.

Meanwhile two large speakers mounted either side of the blood tray blasted Dropkick Murphy's: Rose Tattoo, as the flight of three Pelicans made a beeline for their designated Landing Zone to secure several High Value Individuals, whose bunker was under siege by a particularly vicious group of Pirates and Slavers.

The SOIS troopers who'd made landfall ten minutes ago to secure both the bunker and the local landing zone reporting in that the enemy were doing their damn best to prevent any birds from dropping of any reinforcement so the good Captain saw it fit to send his three best pilots into the jaws of hell.

"Thirty seconds out ground pounders, lock and load and ready up for a hot drop, the LZ is still contested." Foe-Hammer barked into the local troop net. "You heard the lady, Section Gunners out first lay waste to any sonofabitch stupid enough to be sticking their noses where they're not wanted, rest of you provide three sixty security." Barked the grizzled African-American Sargent Major, donning his soft cap instead of his issued helmet.

"Let's tag us some bad guys lads!" echoed a corporal, the rest of the troop barking out an oohrah in response. "Touch down in ten seconds!" The pelican dropship pitched slightly nose up as it made a rapid decent into a local park, tracers pinging off of the laminate armour as the enemy tried to bring the transports crashing to the earth, an RPG vapour trail whiffed past the three black transports as the operator was shot dead by a SOIS sniper.

"Touchdown, hit it Marines!" Foe-Hammer barked as the pelican hovered a scant foot above the earth of the Turian colony world of Agamemnon.  
The two gunners operating the devastating and highly controversial M57-D were the first to jump out of the blood tray.

Their auto-targeting heads up displays highlighting hostiles with a thin red outline relaxing their upper bodies the combined six gunners let the servo-motors take over letting their belt fed weapon systems do the aiming for them with their targeting reticle centred on the enemy all six depressed their triggers.  
Anticipating that their Kinetic-Barriers would provide a level of protection they never got a chance to move to cover as high velocity APE-D rounds ripped through their ineffective armour systems before detonating inside their bodies killing them through sheer shock and trauma.

"Marines focus on the big bastards first, they look like they'll be the most trouble!" The Sargent Major barked, with the perimeter in the process of being secured the three pelicans deposited their extra cargo, the underslung Jackal IFV's two armed with the vaunted and some would say antiquated M2 mark.10 Browning machine guns, whilst the last was armed with a 40mm Grenade Machine Gun.

"Alright marines I want this park locked down tighter than a nuns asshole!"

"yessir!" the Marines barked out as they pushed through cover to cover killing pirates and slavers as they advanced to the parks perimeter. "Echo flight you're clear for take-off we'll call for a priority pick up once we have the HVI's secure and en-route."

"Copy last, good luck out there Sargent. Out."

The flight of three pelicans gradually built up some momentum as they built up some altitude to clear the local rooftops where several sticks of SOIS took residence. "First, Third and Fifth sections keep my fucking LZ secure, Second Forth and Sixth Sections we're headed for that bunker, Jackal 1-1 and 1-3 stay put, Jackal 1-2 with us you're our HVI's exfil."

"Copy." The assembled marines barked out, as they made their preparations before moving out to complete their objectives.

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.

* * *

I watched the tactical display on the Lion's war table, casualties had been light, so far, twelve SOIS were Dead On Arrival, four through digging their own graves, as their Single Occupant Exo-Atmospheric Insertion Vehicles [SOEIV] failed to deploy their drag-chutes or alternatively failed to fire their retro's in time if at all.

While the remaining eight went out in a 'blaze of glory' also known as hot-boxing their drop pod hatches failing to seal properly resulting in the occupants being cooked while in the process of entering the worlds atmosphere, it was a truly nasty way to go out but the men and women who signed up for SOIS knew the risks and were paid liberal amounts of hazard pay in the event that their pod failed.

Their names and pictures were already being added to the memorial wall alongside those of the crew who'd fallen before them.

"Least we forget." I muttered to myself as I manipulated the display bringing up the system wide tactical display, I watched as Turian naval elements cycled between each other to discharge their saturated heat sinks into the atmosphere of Agamemnon, a frowned upon practice unless in times of war.

"Ka'mara when are the additional reinforcements due to arrive?" Ka'mara took a quick glance up towards the wall mounted analogue clock. "Not for another six hours at least, alright stand down half of the crew, they've got an hour to get some scran down their necks, then have them rotate I've got a feeling we've not quite broken these slaver bastards just yet."

"Aye sir."

"Oh, tell the head chef to send up take-out for CIC unfortunately there won't be any rest for the wicked." And true to my words only a scant couple of hours later Admiral Nyx contacted us through the secure network.

"Captain, we've lost all telemetry from the Relay leading back to the Three-One-Four System the Hegemony is back dooring our system once more, I hope you and yours are more than ready for a second bout."

"We're more than ready Admiral, I just hope to god the patch ups on the local defence fleet hold out until your reinforcements arrive, otherwise this'll turn into a real slog."

"They'll get here Captain. Admiral Nyx out."

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.  
Command and Control Centre.

* * *

Gavilan stood proudly at his command position towards the rear of the bridge, the primary holographic display no longer showing the status of the Spirit of Palaven, but a 3D representation of Agamemnon's capital city.

It seemed all the more obvious that Humanity was all the more capable on the ground than in space, the Garrison reports were nothing if not glowing with praise, small troop formations capable of laying waste to numerically superior forces, through a sheer weight of firepower or through superior manoeuvrability.

Innovative flanking's, superior fire and manoeuvre, heavy armour support intermixed with the marines providing both a form of mobile cover or hard point or as the humans put it bunker busting capabilities.

But what came as a shock was the level of interoperability between the whole detachment, entire sections or troops with differing orders providing wordless support to one another, Non Commissioned Officers with far more operational authority to make battlefield decisions, Human officers at the Garrison Headquarters called it Strike Operations.

"We give them an objective their one order is to win, we don't care how they do it, so long as they get it done, everyone from the most senior officer to the greenest of privates has the capability to come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy, we just provide the tools and the management to co-ordinate the whole. Innovation, adaptability and strike capability are what have won some of humanities fiercest wars, we just embraced the idea and ran with it."

The results spoke for themselves, in less than an hour from when the first SOIS troopers were dropped via drop-pods from low orbit to the marines capitalising on the beach heads provided, several Forward Operating Bases were already in the process of being built.

Gavilan's thoughts were interrupted when one of his junior officers spoke up from his post in one of the CIC's many alcoves. "Sir, I've just lost Telemetry from the Three-One-Four system Relay, we've been locked out sir." The female Ensign reported.

"Looks like the Batarian's are making their move, alert the fleet, to tighten up formation, the ships still in the process of discharging their heat sinks are to finish doing so before re-joining the defensive line." Adrianus ordered while Gavilan busied himself trying to co-ordinate with the SSV Lion.

"Lion actual, here." Captain Spruce's voice broke through intermixed with a light static.

"Captain, we've lost all telemetry from the Relay leading back to the Three-One-Four System the Hegemony is back dooring our system once more, I hope you and yours are more than ready for a second bout." Gavilan spoke into his omni-tools microphone.

"We're more than ready Admiral, I just hope to god the patch ups on the local defence fleet hold out until your reinforcements arrive, otherwise this'll turn into a real slog." Captain Spruce replied.

"They'll get here Captain. Admiral Nyx out." Gavilan cut the communication off, watching as his crew scrambled into combat stations.

That's when it happened, the secondary channel began playing music once more. [Manowar: Sword of the Highlands.] Gavilan was about to order the to turn the song up, but the communications officer beat him to it by increasing the volume by at least twenty percent, it was a slow melody to begin with, but when the first lyrics hit their ears entire Turian crews perked up.  
A song of both tragedy and triumph, a song with a cultural significance behind it.

It took a lot of them a good minute to understand the meaning of the song, but it was in essence one massive insult to the Batarian culture, how Humanity would fight and die to the last to remain a free people, it was a truly glorious feeling, inspiring one could say, Gavilan could hardly believe the fortune for the crew of the Invictus to have found such a people, a people the hierarchy could truly count upon in these trying times where it seemed the Council were as much with the Hierarchy as they were against them.

Maybe just maybe, Humanity's defiance and unpredictability was the collective kick up the ass the Galaxy needed; that was neither here nor there, for now the surviving Hierarchy forces alongside the SSV Lion had to hold the line until the two reserve fleets could bolster their forces in a scant few hours' time.

That's when the first of the Batarian Hegemonies second wave appeared in a flash of blue, frigates appearing in the dozens intermixed with cruisers followed by two dreadnoughts and hundreds of converted civilian transports, loaded with thousands if not tens of thousands of slave soldiers alongside their slaver masters.

Gavilan opened a fleet wide comm link via his omni tool, taking a breath Gavilan gave a shot speech. "Hold steadfast sons and daughters of Palaven, for our duty is not yet done, for the pride of the Spirits we fight to the last."

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.

* * *

"…. we fight to the last." Gavilan's speech finished broadcasting throughout the CIC of the Lion, I held a small smirk on my face. "CGO how are we looking on our ammunition situation?" running through his personal PADD in hand he read through and mentally calculated how dire our situation was. "Main Batteries have used up thirty percent of their entire stockpile of APAC and APACHE and fifteen percent of the KATIES in storage, our torpedo situation isn't much better, out of our original stockpile of forty super-heavy disruptor torpedoes twenty four remain and out of our sixteen Type 45 nuclear torpedoes twelve remain."

Doing another quick scroll through is PADD the officer finished his report. "seventy percent of our RAPIER salvo was used up, Lion's super computers must've calculated that not all of them were necessary to finish off the first wave, while our AM/AF batteries magazines are down to sixty percent."

Nodding at the report I looked towards the CAG. "CAG, how many of our birds are in their roosts?" CAG hadn't even turned to address me before speaking up from their post. "Red and Blue squadrons are half way through 'R and R' sir, Black and Gold Squadrons are planet side, with white and silver squadrons still in reserve." I nodded as the report was given to me. "Order Durandal and Roland to get those birds in reserve active, pull the reserve fighter pilots from their duties, they're fighter jocks until this fight is over!"

"Aye sir!"

"Ka'mara. Get your old man on the horn and have whatever fighter craft he has co-ordinating with our Vipers." Ka'mara lifted a brow plate and her mandibles twitched before nodding. "CAG tell Durandal and Roland to convert six Pelicans to Battle-Wagons, I'm authorising them to load up on Blue-Steel." Nodding his head while holding his thumb up, whilst relaying my orders through his headset, told me all I needed to know. "Sensor's what's the time until the enemy fleet is in range?"

"Best estimate is about ten minutes sir." I nodded before turning to Ka'mara before muttering. "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war." Turning to Lieutenant Smollet. "Smollet, help set the mood for our unwanted guests." Smollet smiled. "Any particular preference sir?"

"Something classical."

[Play: Requiem, K. 626 Lacrimosa Dies Illa. By Wolfgang Mozart. Followed by: Messa Da Requiem: Dies Irae – Tuba Mirum. By Giuseppe Verdi.]

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: Now the last two songs I've thought for a long time were so much more impactful than Ride of the Valkyries especially with the two combined its like you're providing the funeral hymn for the enemy and to be fair I think** **Ride of the Valkyries has been over used so why not change the norm and do something unique.**

**Also expect the follow on chapter to come much sooner than what its taken me to get this one out to you lot.**

**Any gripes or suggestions, leave me a review or a PM I'll do my best to implement them in the future, it's not a sure fire thing but I'll do my best to improve upon my writing.**


	12. A Few Good Men

**AN: Hello to all my fans new and old, I hope you had a merry Christmas and I hope you all have a happy New Year, I have a few bits of admin before this chapter gets underway.  
This chapter was due to release on Christmas day as a bit of a gift from me to you, but I don't know what the hell happened but drunk me went dark, I mean real dark, what the hell was put in my whisky I have no idea so I had to scrap around half of this chapter, rewrite the bloody thing and publish it two days late.  
**

**Man am I glad I dodged the bullet and didn't publish it whilst I was drunk.**

**Next, I do read every review you guys write, please don't think I'm ignoring you by not replying to your messages and critisims, I just hate dumping huge chunks of information in these AN's, so please continue to send me your love and or hate my fic, I can't improve my writing without you lot bludgeoning it through my skull.**

**Thank you all for your continued support.  
Now on with the show.**

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.

[Play: Sabaton: To Hell and Back.]

* * *

Gripping the war table hard as the Lion took multiple Dreadnought grade mass accelerator rounds directly into the bow Ka'mara took stock of the situation, there was barely an hour to go until the reserve fleets arrived in system, luckily Liam's strategy to use Battle-Wagons with Blue-Steel micro disruptor torpedoes to saturate the Eezo repulsors suspending the shield walls the Batarian capital ships were banking on to protect them from direct assault had worked.

The cost, fifty four of Lion's Red, Blue, White and Silver squadrons would not be making the trip home they had valiantly sacrificed themselves to guarantee that the six Battle-Wagons made it to their objective.

Ka'mara remembered that she had once had a conversation about the Systems Alliance Navy's view on self-sacrifice in times of war in Liam's quarters over a shared meal during their journey to Hierarchy space. _"It's the duty of the Senior officers in the Systems Alliance to spend Human lives, rather than waste them, death is a fact of war something we simply cannot avoid, if it comes to it, I'll spend the lives of my crew and myself to make sure our objectives are accomplished."_

It had been a sobering moment to say the least, Humans weren't war mongers but they knew full well what the price of war was and the Systems Alliance wouldn't shy away from the 'Human Cost' they would however make the enemy pay their toll in blood.

"Sir! That last salvo ripped main batteries Alpha-one and Alpha-three clean off the bow, the automated blast doors have sealed the Barbettes, we're estimating that one hundred and twenty crewmen are MIA presumed KIA."

Though Ka'mara still struggled at times to recognise human micro-expressions, she knew rage, very rarely did Liam take anything personally, insulting someone you knew was in Liam's DNA, being of British ancestry, but making him spend his crews lives was one way to end up as public enemy number one.

"Bastards have realised that if they can't break through our armour, they may as well try to pick apart our offensive capability to make us less of a threat. Helm begin a Keyhole Manoeuvre; I'm not having more of our Batteries picked off." Liam ordered.

Ka'mara quickly picking up her wireless made a quick announcement over the ship wide PA system. "All hands, all hands brace for combat manoeuvre's." Ka'mara placed her wireless back onto its base.

Looking back towards the war table, Ka'mara could easily determine how well the rest of the fleet was coping by their positioning on the system map, they were holding albeit barely, utilising the crippled warships as impromptu defence grid satellites had bolstered the overall defence just enough for the fleet to hold at its weakest points.

That's when all hell broke loose, the Lion was rocked by a massive explosion, causing multiple injuries among the CIC crew. "Damage Report!" she barked out on instinct. "Best estimate ma'am we just took a disruptor torpedo, still trying to work out where it fucking hit us."

"Fires have broken out in the underside magazine, we've lost one of the reserve water-tanks, bulkheads have been warped out of shape and are failing to seal, emergency bulkheads are sealing at the next best possible frame."

The CIC broke out into a hive of activity for the next thirty seconds, as the crew in the CIC re-organised the first and second responders. "Damage Response Teams reporting in the fires in the lower magazine have been brought under control, more than a few of the crew are in critical condition."

* * *

November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.  
Command and Control Centre.

* * *

"Admiral the SSV Lion has taken damage, I have confirmation that the Blast is consistent with a high yield Disruptor Mine." Gavilan Nyx was shocked to say the least, just how in the spirits had every sensor in the fleet missed a spirit's damned Disruptor Mine, unless.

"Sensors, adjust passive sensors to Salarian STG supplied frequencies, I have a feeling I know what we're dealing with." Gavilan ordered, his subordinates following their orders without question, the tactical display in the centre of the C3 updated with 99 additional contacts in close proximity to the fleet.

"Order all vessels to change their passive sensors to the STG frequencies now! Communications distribute the frequency to the SSV Lion immediately, I doubt Captain Spruce will appreciate the fact we're keeping him blind."

"Aye sir." The entire crew responded. "Tactical, mark STG assets as hostile I want our lasers shooting those mines out of our space now!"

The space around lit up with crimson streaks as the fleets entire Guardian array opened fire on the approaching stealth mines, while the SSV Lion's AF/AM batteries unleashed their golden tracer fury on the mines slowly drifting into its personal space, no doubtedly some poor officer in the Batarian Fleet was going to be shot for his or her incompetence.

But the biggest question remained, just where the hell did the Batarian Hegemony get Special Tasks Group Stealth Mines? It was a question Gavilan Nyx wanted answers to, but his first priority was to secure Agamemnon from future Batarian assault.

"How long until reinforcements arrive in system?" Gavilan asked his Executive Officer. "Both fleets are on station in the Valkyr System, they're discharging their heat sinks fully, they're estimating that they'll be arriving in system in twenty minutes."

"Excellent, inform the rest of the fleet, we're finishing these animals here and now, all vessels are to fire double time."

With the Combined Hierarchy fleet alongside the SSV Lion which continued to spin in a clockwise aileron roll doubling their main battery fire the Batarian fleet's frontline was caught between a hammer and anvil, their own capital ships preventing them from repositioning to better avoid the onslaught that had been unleashed upon them.

Several frigates detonated into blue green fireballs as their fuel and munitions detonated rather violently after their shields failed to compensate against the increased volume of firepower.

The Lion was quickly on her way to earning her two hundredth and fiftieth kill, which was an absolute achievement to say the least, only the top five percent of the Systems Alliance warships ever reached a comparable kill ratio.

* * *

Challenger Main Battle Tank "Horseman of War"  
Agamemnon's Capital City, Police Department Headquarters.  
Front Plaza.

[Play: Andrew W.K.: Ready to Die.]

* * *

While the defence of Agamemnon's orbit was all but certain, the ground war on Agamemnon's surface was still in a state of flux, even with the Lion's Marine Corps giving it their all there were still low thousands of hostiles still entrenched within the capital city's outskirts and key structural chokepoints.

Captain John MacTavish, watched as another 88mm shoulder mounted rocket struck the front turret armour of one of his squadrons Challenger MBT's, Each of the four vehicles named after one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

"Third story, multi-story car park, Infantry with RPG. Load HESH." MacTavish called out over the tanks personal comms. "Sighted." His gunner barked.

"Loaded." War's loader barked as he set the safety shield in place allowing the 140mm main gun to fire. "Up!" Wars gunner barked, as the 140mm main cannon recoiled to the back of the turret, a massive fireball erupted from the muzzle as a 140mm plastic explosive warhead squashed against the hostiles cover.

Followed shortly by the delayed fuse explosion which annihilated everything in a 15 metre radius with shrapnel guaranteed to kill any poor bastard stuck in a thirty metre radius. "Almost feel sorry for the poor bastards, sir." War's driver piped up from the lower hull from his reclined position.

"Don't weep for the stupid trooper, you'll be crying all fucking day." MacTavish retorted, as he manipulated the controls for his independent sight. "Famine, three runners with AT on your three o'clock."

"Copy." Echoed through his earpiece before Famine's Co-Axial thirty calibre machine gun fired in six, six round bursts, all three hostiles were cut down like wheat to a scythe. "Fucking idiots." MacTavish muttered, watching as the Turian CCPD with aid from the Turian Garrison re-armed themselves with military grade rifles and sidearms.

The police head quarters had been highly contested as of late, it's structure was something akin to a fortress overlooking six of the major routes throughout the city, unfortunately for the slaver or pirate bastards, they'd failed to shoot down a single pelican carrying any one of the 'Four Horsemen' which was coming to bite them in the ass something fierce.

One thing MacTavish did have to respect about the hostile forces they were fucking tenacious sons of bitches, only pulling back to try and goad any of the defenders into one of their prepared kill zones.

"Any news on the main objectives?" War's loader piped up as he busied himself with the tanks 'Bivvy' or BV a boiling vessel in which hot food and drinks could be prepared within minutes. "I've not heard too much but all of the Primary and Secondary landing zones have been held with reinforcements pushing the advantage."

"Fucking hell, I reckon once these bastards get it through their thick skulls that they can't win, they'll surrender, we have orbital supremacy, their secondary fleet won't stand a chance once the Turian reinforcements rock up to kick ten bells of shit out of them." War's driver piped up from his reclined position.

"Until then we still have a job to do lads." MacTavish broke the levity. "Ooh-rah." The crew replied, the battle for Agamemnon after all wasn't well and truly in the bag just yet, multiple dozens of marine casualties could attest to that, as well as the two dozen or so who wouldn't be returning to their loved ones.

Not to mention god knows how many Turian civilian, civil and military casualties alongside that the dead would need to be tallied up, families would soon find that they had been torn asunder and god knows how many children had been killed and orphaned by the Hegemony.

Meanwhile at the Joint Command Centre, which had been established inside the Turian Garrison proper, General Katus Sulmius watched as his Human allies co-ordinated a strike in depth campaign, a very 'hands off' approach to waging war.

Unlike the Turian ridged regimental system, where the officers orders were final, unless another officer of equal to higher rank exercised their authority on the matter, to accomplish objectives, the human officers established objectives with one single order.

To win, it didn't matter how, if a private had an idea to break the enemies footholds through artillery or air support, that private got that support, if a marine unit needed armour support, armour support was there fighting well and truly in the thick of a battle.

It was a flexible and highly adaptive means of waging war, Officers still of course kept the overarching view on how the battle was progressing, but they left the immediate actions to a well trained and open to suggestions core of non-commissioned officers.

What they were accomplishing with nothing more than personal PADDS and a long range wireless radio was something to witness, just what in the spirits name caused a single species to develop warships as enduring as the one in orbit, required a diverse and decentralised headquarters, which could within minutes pack up and fully relocate to another position with little or no warning.

Admiral Gavilan's and Commodore Sidoia Acharius' reports that he'd barely had a chance to read, started to make a lot more sense when watching the Human's in action.

"Turian but not Turian indeed." Katus muttered to himself as he privately thought about how obvious that these humans had a military and naval tradition steeped in as much history as the Hierarchies own, something which Katus could respect, however their two species had developed two very different ideologies on how to wage war.

But unlike the Asari, Salarian's or any number of the client races in the galaxy, the Humans were complimenting the Garrison instead of being a hindrance to the Garrison, the best examples being positions which were under threat of collapsing to the enemy found themselves rapidly reinforced by multi wheeled infantry fighting vehicles, loaded with human marines they would strike hard, fast and without mercy before mounting back up to secure the next position at risk of collapse.

Katus twitched his mandibles in thought. 'Maybe, just maybe these humans are the species to get the councils collective ass to take action, instead of just reacting to dangers once the damage had been done.' Katus would be watching the political landscape with great interest in the coming years.

* * *

November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion R-106, Combat Information Centre.

[Play: Iron Maiden: These Colours Don't Run.]

* * *

The two Turian reserve fleets had finally arrived, which was a relief, the second Bartarian Hegemony invasion fleet while only having one Dreadnought it easily had double the amount of cruisers, six of which at one point or another carried a solid shield utilising Eezo repulson technology to keep the thing suspended in front themselves to protect them and dozens upon dozens of invasion craft now found themselves at serious risk of being overwhelmed from multiple vectors, the bastards had decided that common sense was the best part of valour and started retreating at best possible speed.

Reports were still being organised the disruptor mine had ripped an 80 metre hole clean through the port side right underneath where the portside hanger pod would retract into, we were lucky in the fact that it had hit the water tanks, rather than the reserve fuel tanks a scant fifty odd metres aft from where the mine had struck, though the crew would have to suffer with one minute hasty showers until the damage to the water tank was repaired and enough water was filtered into it to replace the 100 tons of water that was lost in the blast, it was a damn sight better than the alternative.

What worried those in the know however was the fact that several frames in the area had been well and truly warped out of shape, meaning damage control and repair was going to be an absolute royal bitch to accomplish, not to mention the red hot shards that had been launched at speeds potentially point zero, zero one percent the speed of light clean through the underbelly magazines metre thick citadel Titanium armour causing a fire to break out, as far as anyone could figure thirty odd crew were MIA presumed KIA, until an official tally could be organised.

Luckily none of the Montressian observers were anywhere near considered a risk, that was a political shitstorm best avoided at all costs.

The loss of the two turrets alongside their entire crews came as a blow, a lot of good men and women were lost and would be missed their names and pictures would be left on the ships memorial wall, their personal affects would be placed into storage and would be returned to their next of kin specified in their wills.

But with the Agamemnon system well and truly back in the hands of the Turian Hierarchy, the Lion and her crew could get back to licking their wounds whilst focusing their entire effort in supporting the ground campaign, after all there was no rest for the wicked.

* * *

To be Continued….

* * *

**AN: Thank you lot for putting up with me and my sheer british cheesiness, terrible music tastes and questionable drinking habbits, all joking aside, when I first started writing this fic, I had no direction, except to reach the main franchise and just manipulate bits and pieces, whilst not making Humanity the be all and end all of the Reaper threat.**

**So to better establish what rules and conventions there are I'll be writing up an Information Wiki so you lot can point out any issues with continuity and the like and hold me at pitchfork point to fix them.**

**Everything from profiles to schematics, diary entries to political shit talking, if you lot want to contribute to this fic in a direct manner I've made a discord channel.**

**please PM me if you are interested.**


	13. Adapt And Overcome

**AN: First of all sorry for the wait, I'm happy to announce that that this marks the END of the Siege of Agamemnon and plans are already in motion for the Future Turian-Human relationship. Also the Montressian observers will be far more previlant in the coming chapter / chapters can't have that plot thread get lost in the wind.**

**Secondly, two fans of B.D.D. have contributed to this FanFic through direct corrispondence on my Discord Channel, now I'm working 12 hour shifts from the 6th of Jan for three days, if anyone wishes to join send me a PM and I will have invites organised either when I get home or I have my four day weekends.**

**Thirdly, this is a personal thank you to Ubernoner and MrMorriss a fellow Brit and our American sidekick, these two glorious S.O.B's have been a massive pain in my ass and amazing help springboarding enough shit onto the wall to see what sticks, I can't thank you guys enough.**

**The same can be said to you lot as well, the fandom for this Fic has exploded and I can't thank you all enough.  
Alright, enough of this mushy crap I'm nursing a bloody hangover and I have work tomorrow, I'll see you all on the bounce troopers!  
**

* * *

December 5th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.  
Command and Control Centre.

* * *

Gavilan Nyx strode throughout the main corridor leading towards the Spirit of Palaven's bridge, his duty uniform was freshly pressed a cup of Palaven blend Caff in his dominant right hand with a data pad in his left.  
Reports had been coming through the regular channels rather than the emergency ones for the first time in the last four days, some pirates decided to blow up the local broadcasting masts causing massive collateral damage as the masts fell some forty stories to ground level.

Luckily the incidents killed no one, however many had been hit with shrapnel and bits of debris when they had impacted with the ground.  
Unfortunately none of the city's civilian construction vehicles had survived the massive EMP that the SSV Lion's nukes had caused wiping out the first invasion armada, in fact the entirety of transport network had been disabled, Captain Spruce had formally apologised to the citizens of Agamemnon for that particular side effect.

Now five days since the Hegemony ran with their tails tucked firmly between their legs, the colony was finally on the mend, a lot of infrastructure had been destroyed as had a lot of families unfortunately.  
The Lion's marine corps was on the frontline, alongside Turian civilian, civil and military forces, each man and woman working side by side together to get the colony solidly back on its own feet, with that said despite the size difference between them humans proved to have far more endurance.

It also seemed that humans were an adaptable sort, with little need for heavy armour support the human tanks had disappeared for a day or two, only to return with their turrets missing replaced by a crew module, a huge hydraulic excavator arm, a massive bundle of pipes called a 'fascine' a plough dozer blade mounted to the front of hull.  
It was a sight to see a vehicle which had killed dozens upon dozens of pirates and slavers days earlier be used to clear roads for emergency services to better traverse the city, or rip down what remained of collapsed war torn buildings.

Two had been responsible for quickly erecting a field hospital in one of the city's parks, built from baskets filled with course rubble, as he had later found out that day the Lion's Marines were more than just Marines, they were engineers, mechanics, signalmen, logistics, tradesmen, teachers, cooks and so much more.

They had fought and won a war on the request of a crew not their own, but they had stepped to the plate nevertheless, it was impressive to say the least. It showed character.  
Stepping into the CIC / Bridge, he was met with the organised chaos that was shift changeover, lifting his cup as a salute his XO Adrianus who was busying himself with a multitude of reports, a female officer addressed him just as he was about to climb the stairs to his post.

One Yeoman Laia Aetnian. "Admiral you have two unread messages, the first is from the Admiralty, the second is from the Primarch himself. Sir." Gavilan gave the Turian equivalent of a stunned expression. "Thank you, Yeoman, have we had any issues today?"

"No sir, I have nothing additional to report." Nodding his head Gavilan made his way to his post placing his pad down to access his off hand omni-tool, accessing his e-mails he found the two messages the good Yeoman had reported about.

It was at that very moment just when the good Admiral had taken a sip of his Caff that his brain had caught up with what he was reading causing him to cough and spit his Caff all over his post.

_To: Admiral Gavilan Nyx.  
From: Primarch Tullius Romullianus._

_Word has spread far within the Hierarchy of your exploits Admiral; it seems prudent to get to the point least the Salarian's intercept this message.  
Congratulations on your PROMOTION to Fleet Admiral, with all the duties and privileges that the rank provides, expect me to PIN those rank bars onto your collar personally._

_Also send word to those who have put their lives down for our people. I would like to meet those who have put their lives on the line to not only save Agamemnon but bring our wayward sons and daughters of Palaven home._

_Signed: Primarch Tullius Romullianus.  
_

The next message was even shorter and simpler, cutting straight to the bone of the matter.

_To: Admiral Gavilan Nyx.  
From: Fleet Admiral Avidia Fimmus. _

_The 209th Battlegroup is en-route with HVI Primarch Tullius Romullianus, they will arrive in twelve hours.  
Enjoy your promotion.  
Also your wife says that you have been withholding information from her, expect to be sleeping on the couch until further notice on your next joint leave._

_Signed: Fleet Admiral Avidia Fimmus._

Not many things in the Galaxy can phase a veteran of the Hierarchies finest fleets, least of all the commanding officer, not unless the man's wife was involved and she was irate, many on the Bridge muttered a silent prayer for their Admiral.

Would it help? Spirits blessed yes, but in all likelihood they would all be surrounding a funeral pyre, singing songs of triumph.

"Yeoman, write me a formal message address it to my daughter, mark it priority one, tell her to expect the Primarch in twelve plus hours. Understood?" Yeoman Laia as attentive as ever was writing the message on her omni-tool as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Understood sir, it's sent." Laia replied.

"Thank you." Gavilan looking towards his XO Adrianus he addressed the gruff officer. "Adrianus you have the Conn."

"I have the Conn, Aye."

* * *

December 5th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Executive Officer Quarters.

* * *

Ka'mara sat behind her personal desk, writing both a digital and paper report for the last week as well as writing up a stack of letters of condolence for the families who had lost their loved ones in an action, she had requested to be undertaken by the SSV Lion and her crew it wasn't new to her she had written multiple letters during her journey home to the loved ones who had lost family aboard the HNV Invictus.

It was always a sobering experience, but she had put forth her heart and had managed to get the Hierarchy to send her letters of thanks on behalf of the Hierarchy proper for those who had died during the Siege of Agamemnon, each one had an attachment a digital accommodation for bravery the highest that the Hierarchy could present to hero's who weren't apart of the Hierarchy proper.

The Foreign Legions Cross for Bravery and Valour in combat, attached to it was a certification proving that the cross was legitimate alongside that was a document for the families of those that put everything down on the line for the Hierarchy where the next of kin could claim a widows payment which was the equivalent to one years pay, at the rank of the spouse killed in action.

Placing the pen down onto the hardwood surface of her desk, Ka'mara leant back a small portion to stretch out her bare arms, human made desks were just a fraction too low to be comfortable not enough to be painful mind you, at least the black leather recliner chair made up for what discomfort she suffered.

Suddenly a priority one message popped up addressed to her by the HNV Pride of Palaven's Yeoman, her father's secretary, opening the message up Ka'mara's eyes bugged out just a little almost reclining too far back in the process, Ka'mara picking up a corded phone from its base fixed to her desks worktop, she opened a line to Lieutenant Smollet.

"This is Comms." Smollet's smooth voice came through the line.

"Lieutenant Smollet can you patch me through to Liam's post, I've got a Priority one message for him." Ka'mara requested, a scant few seconds passed, before the line was transferred. "Ka'mara, Smollet tells me you've got a priority one message for me." Liam's thick accented voice came through the line.

"I do sir, can you please come to my quarters." Ka'mara asked her superior, suddenly his voice blasted through the handset's speaker even though his voice was clearly directed away from his microphone. "CAG, you have the conn…." Before his voice was once more directed towards her over the wireless. "I'm en-route." Liam finished.

"Thank you." Ka'mara replied, placing the phone back onto its base, before getting up to re-organise her entire room, there was going to be no doubt the Primarch would be performing an inspection of all of Turian occupied accommodations' upon his arrival as was the tradition.

Three sharp knocks told her that Liam was outside seeking permission to enter. "Come-in." She shouted out, Liam turning the locking mechanism to the open position, before pushing the door clear of the bulkhead frame.

The door groaning as it was opened and once again closed. "What's so important that you couldn't tell me over the ph-one…." Ka'mara looked over her shoulder to find her Commanding Officer staring at her ass.

"Like something you see Captain." Ka'mara asked rather daringly.

"Well yes, it's a good looking ass on a good looking Turian, but I'm thinking you didn't call me here to stare at your ass." Liam quipped back still fully staring at her underwear clad ass as she remade her cot.

"No, I didn't, I've just received a message from my father's yeoman the Primarch is due to arrive in system in twelve hours and as is tradition he'll be inspecting the sixth Fleet." She watched as her friend and superior put on a thoughtful look on his face.

"I can assume that he or she will want to make the rounds aboard the Lion, alright when I get back to CIC, I'll put out a general announcement for the crew to break out the cleaning supplies, red carpet and the fine china." Liam replied, turning to leave but once he'd reached her quarters door just before opening it, the good captain spoke up once more. "I'll see you in The Crown off shift."

Ka'mara smiled, as she replied back. "I'll be there."

The door was unlocked, opened, shut and locked once more leaving Ka'mara to the whirlwind of thoughts that were in her head.

* * *

December 5th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, En Route to Agamemnon System.  
Turian two-hundredth and ninth Battlegroup, HNV Titan.  
Command and Control Centre.

* * *

Commodore Ardella Nyx, loving wife and mother stood tapping her finger upon her posts railing, her husband had after all been with their daughter for an entire week, with not one correspondence sent to her, her daughter was home, finally after years of semi-sleepless nights wondering about her wayward daughter she could once again rest easy.

Her dear husband on the other hand would be punished suitably for his lack of foresight, leaving her to receive the news by the Admiralty, however much it peeved her she did receive an honour few would complain about.

Her ship the HNV Titan was flying the Primarch's flag, which came with its benefits of being able to 'jump the queue' on congested Relays and not be bothered with routine inspections by fellow Turian naval units patrolling Hierarchy space, though that particular practice seemed to occur with far less frequency than anyone in the navy liked.

Far too many units had been slated by the Citadel Council, councillor Tevos's name was spoken with a liberal amount of contempt these days, the blue parasite being an absolute pompous bitch didn't help with that particular image either.

Although no one would ever say the words aloud for fear of giving the image of sedition, Palvini Primus had more than a point by stating that the Hierarchy paid too much in blood for too little in compensation from the other two big council races.

Current rationing levels are at the highest levels ever recorded, due to the lack of available farming sources.  
Not to mention the Councils newly proposed amendments to the councils existing fleet compositions which if things were to go forward as they were, it would strain the Hierarchy's naval elements to the point of breaking.

The Hierarchy and her people were tough they weren't invincible.

These humans however that had fought to save Agamemnon and its citizens may just be enough of a crutch to prevent the legs of the Hierarchy from giving out, she could only hope.

"Credit for your thoughts Commodore." The flanged voice of the Hierarchy's Primarch asked as he stepped beside her.

"I just hope that these Humans are as half as good as the reports say they are, we could use a steadfast military minded ally like them." Ardella replied honestly.

"There is only one way to find out and that is through the experiences of the crew of the HNV Invictus, so with all due haste lets welcome home our lost sons and daughters." Primarch Tullius said as he patted her on the shoulder.

"Aye sir." Ardella straightened up a small fraction before, looking towards the second to final Relay pair which would take the Battlegroup to the Valkyr System. "Navigation, upload our transit data to the Relay, communications send a message: prepare for mass relay transit on my mark."

'Let's see just what kind of a people these Humans really are.' Ardella thought to herself as her Battlegroup made best possible cruising speed towards the secondary relay.

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: Once again as a shameless plug if you glorious sons of bitches want to be more directly involved in the Alice in Wonderland acid trip which is this fan fics origins send me a PM I'll throw a link your way, oh and to clear something up, any fanfics can be discussed between members not just B.D.D.**

**I hope you lot had a merry christmas / holidays and a happy new year to boot.**

**Thanks once again Uber and Morriss you blood sucking bastards.**

**Peace!**


	14. Plans for the Future

**AN: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my elder sister, who tragically passed away in her sleep on the 29****th**** of January 2020. Rest In Peace Katie.**

**Gone. Never. Forgotten.**

* * *

December 6th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion, The Crown Pub.

* * *

[Play: Judas Priest: Guardians + Rising From Ruins.]

The crew had for the last six hours spent sprucing up the Lion's interior after all what truly mattered the most was first impressions and since Primarch was in attendance the crew were pulling out all of the stops, it didn't matter that the Lion had seen combat or that her bow had taken an absolute battering it was no excuse for being unpresentable when foreign dignitaries were making an appearance.

Especially when said dignitary was the commander and chief of the largest Naval force in known space, the Crown Bar itself was just finishing up on its re-organisation as crewmen prepared the room for the signing ceremony, which while audacious of us, it cut directly to the bone of the matter.

Direct Politics, apparently the Hierarchy hated politics which 'beat around the bush' as it were and would rather get things over and done with, apparently according to the rumour mill on board, the Hierarchy continuously pissed off the Asari Republics by refusing to play their political games.

A pastime Liam believed the Systems Alliance's own politicians would be using with great effect, especially if it riled up those who believed themselves superior to everyone else, it'd be fun taking those blue supremacist parasites down a peg or two.

Though Humanities political elite would play as nice as they had to, to prevent a full blown war while humanity secured any and all Relays into human space, there was no way in hell Humanity would be led by the fucking nose by anyone.

The Montressians had a likeminded attitude, the cat-like race being a prideful lot refused to be pulled into the political machinations of others especially if they were going to be used against their 'new' human and potential Turian allies.

Not bad considering the Lion had almost slammed bow first into a Montressian colony ship when she jumped into the Montresor System.

It wasn't long before Ka'mara walked through the door to the Crown Pub, spying the multiple crew finishing the changes and a few of the off duty officers sat around the bar proper, including the good Captain of the SSV Lion.

Sitting with a glass of whisky in his right hand, with a data pad in in the other he took a good swig of his glass before he glanced over his shoulder to see her approaching. "Barman, a Turian Brandy for the lady if you'd be so kind."

The Turian barman glanced at Ka'mara for a split second, before pulling the ordered drink from the shelving behind the bar top. "Enjoy ma'am." he said as she placed the drink on the bar top as she took her seat next to her commanding officer.

"You know it's bad form to be reading reports while off duty in a Pub captain." Liam snorted a second before locking the device.

"How right you are m'lady, it is bad form especially seeing as I frequent this fine establishment so much, I should've known better." Liam laid it on rather thickly, Ka'mara just shook her head in response.

"How bad is it?" Ka'mara asked.

Liam just sighed. "Damage is pretty extensive on the bow; Damage Response Teams have found at least seventeen capital grade rounds buried in the Dradis hardware as well as at least thirteen rounds that have ricocheted down and through several maintenance access corridors."

He paused a few seconds taking another swig of his golden beverage before continuing on. "The two batteries that were ripped clean off of the ship were retrieved, the scrap remains have to be melted down before re-building the damn things, it'll take at least a year with the on board facilities, good news is that the DRT's have patched the hole so we've got time on our side."

"That's good news, I take it the crew will be holding a send-off?" Ka'mara asked, as she took another sip of her drink.

"Aye, good men and women each and every one of them, I'll put in a request to your father to have the caskets fired into the system primary, as is naval tradition." Ka'mara gave a nod, it'd be good publicity for both sides for different reasons.

Raising his glass, Liam addressed those in the Crown. "A toast to the dead!" holding his glass above his head, the whole room stood upright mimicking their captain in his salute. "To those they left behind!" the crowd barked in unison.

"Carry on." Liam addressed the crew, before turning to the barman. "Barman, when these lot are done with their duties one round of drinks on me." A small chorus of cheers broke out from the announcement.

"Ka'mara I'll be in my quarters finishing off my personal apologies to those families who lost their loved ones, I need you to organise the honour guard and ships band to receive our guests this afternoon."

"Aye sir, any particular preference to the band's song?" Ka'mara asked as Liam knocked back the last of his whisky, placing the glass on the bar top, he stood silent for a few seconds. "Tell them to play something traditional."

* * *

December 6th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.  
Flag Officers Bridge.

* * *

It'd been six hours since the arrival of the Primarch and his team of the Hierarchies finest diplomats and lawyers, six hours of gruelling debriefs and reporting later and they were still to get to the situation at hand.

The SSV Lion and those that crewed her, the newly termed 'Super-Heavy-Dreadnought' not to mention the absolute political shitstorm surrounding the fact that the Hierarchy were performing an independent first contact.

Something the Council charter heavily penalised against, but considering the fact that Humanity could be the Hierarchies independent lifeline if the Salarian's and Asari started tightening their noose on necessary produce to feed the billions of Turian Citizens scattered throughout the known Galaxy.

It was a gamble, some would say a reckless one at that, but the Hierarchy was teetering on full blown civil war, a civil war comparable to the Unification Wars all those centuries ago, something the Hierarchy had to avoid at all costs.

Even if it meant burning political goodwill with their so called allies.

"Do we have any idea on this Captain Spruce's negotiating objectives? What is motivating humanity to ally with us specifically, other than returning our lost to us." One of the many Hierarchies finest diplomats asked all those assembled in the room.

Newly promoted Fleet Admiral Gavilan Nyx was the first to stand respond to the question. "Though I have had little to no time to talk to my daughter in depth considering the situation, the few facts she has given to me in her spare time indicate that the Systems Alliance would rather make friends with us than make war…." Gavilan took a moment to pause.

"Humanity has an extensive Navy, Army and Airforce around sixty five to seventy percent our total fleet numbers, including what has to be the largest Auxiliary supply fleet in the known galaxy, they could fight us to a complete stalemate, but the casualties would be astronomical. For both sides." Gavilan finished.

Commodore Ardella Nyx spoke up next to her husband. "A species with the capability to wage war not since seen since the Krogan, but with a calculating mind of a Salarian knowing their own strengths and weaknesses would be an absolute nightmare to fight."

That got a round of nods from all parties involved in the room. "Do we have any preliminary data on what Humanity want out of our proposed alliance?" Another Diplomat asked this one a female.

"Only that they wish to open formal negotiations with us, that and the fact that they want to establish their boarders with the greater galactic community, no not really. I do have one bit of good news, the Captain has been informed on our traditions and as was custom in the old ways, offered both a flag as a token of goodwill and a first contact package so we can observe their traditions, values and standards as well as supply us with a the entire known history of Humanity."

The entire room perked up, this was something not one of them had expected, not the diplomats, the lawyers, hell not even Primarch had seen that bit of information coming, that's when everyone in the room took notice of the two wooden boxes sat squarely in the tables centre.

"Do we know the flags cultural significance?" one of the female lawyers asked.

Gavilan gave a single nod. "It's a Naval Ensign, one which has flown aboard the oldest commissioned vessel in Systems Alliance space, one HMS Victory, currently berthed in drydock number two in HMNB Portsmouth on Earth, humanities home world." Gavilan informed everyone.

"Just how long has this vessel been in commission?" Primarch Tullius Romullianusasked Gavilan.

"Four hundred and twenty nine years. Sir." Now that had gotten everyone off guard, Tullius's mandibles clicked once then twice in thought. _'For humanity to offer such a flag of such cultural significance, it could be both a sign of sincerity or one of desperation…. such information I could only gleam from meeting this Captain Spruce face to face.'_

Breaking the Primarch's thoughts, Commodore Nyx spoke up. "What of the Captain himself, what do we know about him?" She asked.  
Gavilan took time to open up his Omni-tool expanding it for the room to see without issue. "Captain Liam Spruce, is highly valued in the systems alliance reserve, most actions have been suppressing insurrectionists in the outermost of humanities colonies, multiple citations from peers, superiors and those serving under him show him to be level headed, calculating man willing to put life and limb on the line to complete the mission objectives…."

Gavilan took a second or two to pause to let the room assimilate the information. "He has personally been awarded medals such as the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for Gallantry in the face of combat with the enemy, the Navy Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct medal for no less than ten years continuous service as well as multiple campaign medals. Gavilan finished.

Clicking his mandibles for a third time Primarch Tullius addressed the room. "Admiral contact the SSV Lion, please inform the captain I would like to formally begin negotiations as soon as possible."

"Sir!" Gavilan barked. "Everyone is to assemble everything they could possibly need, we're going into an unknown situation be ready to depart at five minutes notice, in the meantime I want my chief negotiator, chief lawyer, Admiral and Commodore Nyx to return here within the hour I would very much like to learn everything I can about Humanity from their first contact package."

With everything said and done the whole room dismissed to attend to their assigned duties.

* * *

December 6th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion, Captains Quarters.  
Hours Later.

* * *

After finishing writing up and addressing each letter to the families of those who died Liam decided to freshen up in his en-suite bathroom, re trimming his beard and washing away the day's grime before putting on his dress best for the upcoming negotiations.

A brief knock on the door, pulled his attention from inspecting his dress black uniform. "Enter." He answered as he adjusted his tie, Ka'mara stepped into his quarters dressed in her Turian navy blue dress uniform, two rows of awards on her left breast were arranged in two parallel vertical columns.

Whilst a smattering of medals had been arranged on her right breast in a single horizontal line, with three badges pinned upon a violet sash with golden trims and tassels looped from her left shoulder to her right hip.

"Ah Ka'mara, do me a solid would you and inspect me, can't go looking like an absolute slob to such a momentous occasion now can I?" Liam asked standing to attention so Ka'mara could inspect him properly.

Ka'mara's sharp green iris's and slit pupils could pick up any minor imperfection from 300 metres away if she really tried, so taking a solid couple of minutes she inspected her commanding officer like she would any peer or subordinate crewmen.

The Systems Alliance black dress uniform, contrasted with the golden rank insignia's on his lapels and cuffs; looped over his right shoulder under the armpit and pinned to the right collar of his uniform was a golden Aiguillette which hung just over the first of two rows of polished buttons, which were arranged into two rows of four, with a white dress shirt and black tie underneath.

Likewise, a royal red sash looped under the Aiguillette to his left hip, his left breast had three rows of horizontal ribbons, each one marking an operation or tour of duty; whilst a row of various medals had been pinned directly underneath them.

Finishing up his uniform were a set of matching black dress trousers immaculately polished black shoes a peaked cap with an officers dress sword sheathed in a black leather scabbard with gold polished gold trims.

Taking a moment to walk around him to inspect his back, she nodded to herself in satisfaction. "I have to say sir, you could teach a few of our enlisted on how to dress, I'd be willing to put credits on you being the best dressed officer if you were serving in the Hierarchy right now."

Liam visibly relaxed at the praise. "That's a load off, do you know how long it took me to adapt Turian dress uniform regulations to suit my uniform? Weeks I tell you Ka'mara, weeks." Ka'mara visibly did a turian smirk.

"Are we ready for our first face to face Ka'mara?" Liam asked seriously.

"As ready as we'll ever be sir." Ka'mara replied honestly.

Liam nodded. "Ten minutes, here's to hoping the brass was right about sending me of all people to open full diplomatic negotiations between our people."

"Sir, it's my honest opinion that the Systems Alliance couldn't have picked someone better for the job, a sprits' be damned diplomat would've sent a bit of a mixed message." Ka'mara responded.

Liam let the message sink in for a good few second's, before nodding to himself. "Would the fine lady oblige me by allowing me to escort her to our shared destination?" Liam asked, laying the received pronunciation on pretty thick.

"It would be a privilege." Ka'mara replied.

* * *

December 6th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion, Starboard Flight Pod, Main Hanger Deck.

* * *

Much like before the crew were assembled as an honour guard, with a row of marines baring arms on the front most ranks facing inwards, the crew were dressed in such a way that the smallest of the crew were in the inner most files with the tallest members in the outermost files making a very gentle curve in the middle.

The ships band were assembled playing: Wings (The Corps March) of the Royal Engineers as the lift carrying the shuttle Primarch of the Turian Hierarchy which would be followed by the Royal Marines: Symphonic Marches of John Williams.

Stood one pace to my left and two paces behind me was Ka'mara holding a tri-fold flag, the flag which had been present aboard the HNV Invictus, to Ka'mara's right Lieutenant Hstokk the senior most officer of the Montressian observers and diplomats.

With the hanger door retracting the ships band seamlessly switched songs, the Turian shuttle's side door opened outwards before sliding back to allow the Turian delegation to dismount.

Two Turian Cabal's one male, the other female stepped off first to provide security, Primarch Tullius Romullianus was at the forefront of the delegation, snapping a Turian salute towards Liam, Liam saluted him back with the sabre in his right hand by raising the blade vertically in front of his face, before dropping it back to his right hand side.

"Permission to board Captain?" Tullius asked Liam as he dropped his own salute.

"Granted sir, it's both and honour and a privilege to host you aboard the Lion, we've been anticipating your arrival a little over a year now." Liam responded.

"Before we begin talks in earnest, I must thank you and your crew for making the sacrifices that you have, for the both the sake of the Hierarchy and her people. Thank you." Tullius bowed his head towards the Lion's captain and crew.

Stepping out after the Primarch had taken his first steps aboard the Lion, Gavilan Nyx and his wife Ardella Nyx followed suit, both snapping salutes on which the Lion's Captain returned repeating the salute with his sabre.

"Admiral Nyx, it's a pleasure to have you aboard once more." Liam stated, Gavilan gave a nod before replying.  
"It's a privilege to be aboard once more, I'd like to introduce you to my loving wife, Ardella." Gavilan said as he motioned towards his wife.

"It's finally nice to see you in person, the picture on your profile does some justice captain, but its not the same as meeting the man himself." Ardella spoke.

"It's nice to put a face to your name finally, your daughter has said nothing but kind words about you since our journey began." Ardella's mandibles clicked twice.

Liam smiled before making an about face. "Ships honour guard! Atten-Shun!" The entire guard snapped to attention; their dress uniforms immaculate. "Honour guard, present arms!" The entire guard saluted the Primarch of the Hierarchy, Admiral Nyx and Commodore Nyx in perfect sync, all the while the band continued to play in the background.

"Sir's, Ma'am my Executive Officer as well as a member of the Montressian delegation would like to present you with tokens, before we make our way to the Crown, where we'll begin official talks." Both female's hearing their commanding officer give the go ahead both stepped ahead of Liam, presenting a pair of flags.

Wordlessly Admiral and Commodore Nyx stepped forward to receive them. "It is with pride and honour; I Commander Nyx return the flag of the Hierarchy's HNV Invictus to take its place on the mausoleum of the Fallen." Ka'mara passed the trifold flag to her mother.

"May the Sprits guide those who couldn't make the journey home, it shall be displayed for their families to pay their respects as tradition dictates." Ardella replied.

"It is with my deepest apologies that I couldn't present a flag on our first meeting Admiral, as traditions must be upheld, I present to the Hierarchy the Naval Ensign of the Montressian Royal Navy as a gift from my people to yours." Hstokk addressed Admiral Gavilan Nyx.

"The Hierarchy is proud to receive such a gift Lieutenant; take pride you stand amongst friends this day." Gavilan replied accepting the tri-fold flag from the Montressian officer.

Liam quickly barked out an order. "Honour guard, three cheers for the Commander, Lieutenant and the Turian Delegation. Hip, hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Hip, hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Hip, hip!"

Hooray!"

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: I would like to first and foremost thank each and every one of my fans, for having the patience during my Hiatus, losing a loved one, especially my sister was a real kick to the balls, I honestly just lost my enthusiasm to write this chapter….**

**I'm back in action and in no way will you be waiting so long for the next chapter, I've been in constant talks with three dedicated fans whom I believe to be a real bunch of friends, even if the assholes won't stop forcing more idea's down my throat!**

**A big thanks to MrMorriss, Ubernoner and Dragon who put up with me and my rants on a weekly basis.**

**You Guys Rock.  
All of you do.**

**So, if you would kindly leave a review, it'd be much appreciated.**

**Also PM me if you'd be interested in joining the 75th Reserve Battlestar Group on Discord, I'll send you a link. **


	15. Just Playing Politics

**AN: Okay I want to know which one of you spiked my god damned cider, fess up now and I might send you money, just give me your home address before hand, okay, great.**

**It feels good to finally to get straight into the swing of things after such a long hiatus, I can't thank the reviewers who left their condolences enough, Katie would've loved them, even though she was born with (CP) cerebral palsy, she always had that energy about her, she always smiled whenever I got the chance to talk about all the people who enjoyed my writing.**

**Shit look at me a grown ass man, trying not to cry man tears.**

**I can't thank my friends and family enough for being there, you guys as well, now unfortunately there's little to…. No, there's no action here unless you call civil negotiations between two species a high octane adrenaline fuelled stimulant you need hooked into your veins.**

**If you do, what do you smoke and where can I get some?  
Anyways, on with the show.**

* * *

December 6th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion, The Crown Pub.

* * *

The 'Knights Roundtable' had been set up for both parties Captain Spruce and a select few of his crew which were full time diplomats and lawyers before they were full-time sailors, occupied one half of the table whilst on the opposite side the Primarch and his team of the hierarchies best and brightest, as well as Admiral and Commodore Nyx sat facing inwards.

Ka'mara had been excluded from the talks to attend to the Lion the ship still had to be run after all, besides asking a capable officer of the hierarchy to 'pick sides' as it were, was the epitome of bad form.

Neither side wanted that.

Dotted about the table, were various note pads, documentation and the like that both sides had taken the last hour setting up, Liam taking his time rose from his seat to address everyone in the impromptu negotiation suite.

"As the senior most representative of Earth, her colonies and the Systems Alliance, I would like to personally thank each and everyone here for attending these talks, and tiring and trying as they may become, let's not lose sight on what we've achieved and continue on as friends if nothing else comes from these talks."

A "Here, here." Was muttered between the attendees. "I'd like to start with establishing the Systems Alliance borders in relation to the greater galactic community, if each of you could please activate the personal PADD's provided."

Everyone tapping the PADD's singular button the full screen display showed the codex standard galactic map, with multiple colours breaking down each species territorial claims, huge swathes of the galactic map taken up by a multitude of colours.

"As everyone can see the Systems Alliance's claimed territory is comparatively small in comparison to the big three and some rather controversial 'associate races'." Liam stated, everyone knew full well which races he was talking about in particular.

"whilst our overall territory is small, our colonies are 'densely packed' when compared with the galactic standard, you'll be surprised to find out how many habitable or near habitable worlds are tucked between mass relay jump's." Liam finished.

The display changed once more this time green dots appearing within the territories, clearly marking colonised systems of each race, the stark contrast on just how solidly packed humanities colonies were in comparison to their own came as a bit of a shock.

"Just how many colonies does humanity hold currently?" Admiral Nyx asked.

"During the last census a little over a year ago, the Systems Alliance had 398 colonised worlds with a combined population in the somewhere just over one trillion, and 1000's of minor settlements which act as permanent or mobile mining operations for precious metals and exotic minerals." Liam answered honestly.

"By the spirits, how do you keep the population from committing outright rebellion?" Primarch Tullius responded.

"By speaking softly while carrying a big stick…." Liam shook his head realising that the Turian delegates were confused, before continuing. "We'll try and be polite with politics, if they continue its followed by sanctions, if it comes to armed insurrection…. We'll resort to military intervention." He finished.

"You're being rather open about this?" One of the diplomats spoke up, interlocking her fingers.

"It's nothing you couldn't find on the net, our equivalent of the codex, the policies regarding insurrection have been the same for about a century, they get one chance to surrender before we'll put the insurrectionists six foot in the ground."

One of the Lion's Engineers spoke up beside his Commanding officer, Liam raised his hand cutting off the engineer before things got too far off topic. "The Systems Alliance gave me a clear objective to establish our borders with our allies seeing as we border the Hierarchy and the Hegemony we'd like to know if this area of space has had any claims to it?" The area in question was highlighted stretching outwards towards the Hierarchies borders.

The Turian Delegation quickly pulled up their omni-tools and began searching for the relevant information, finally after half an hour of discussions and swapping notes, the reply came back.

"It seems that no other species has a direct link through the Mass Relay Transit System into Systems Alliance space besides Relay three one four, we had put in a request to the Citadel Councils Colonisation Authority to send probes through the relay for a possible expansion into the region, we've still got ten years before we hear their decision." Tullius clicked his mandibles how would the good captain use this information.

"For resources or colonisation?" Liam asked.

The Turian's looked to one another, before looking back. "Both, if there was a world to settle, if not just for the resources." Liam tapped his finger on the table. "We're a little more liberal when it comes to colonisation claims, Three of our colony ships are already heading towards what we've called the Shanxi System…. It'll take them six months but they'll get there, Master Chief, your specialty is colonial settlement disputes right."

"Aye, cap'n." another of the humans piped up with a rather unusual accent.

"Recommendations?" Liam asked.

"Tricky one 'ere cap'n, usually we're dealin' in claims by two human parties, a joint venture maybe if we can get both colonial authorities to agree to push for joint development, otherwise we be shit outa luck on that front, cap'n." The Master Chief spoke rather candidly.

Liam nodded before addressing the Turian's. "How strong of a claim would you say you had to the Shanxi System Primarch? Could we say compensate you for capital lost on the claim, and give Turian Farmers and Businesses tax relief for say ten years."

That got a few murmurs, on both sides of the table, to purchase the claim for a fair price and a tax relief for an initial incentive, there wasn't a galactic precedent for the practice, then again there wasn't one against it either.

Tullius and his team of lawyers and diplomats were quietly chatting to themselves, before straightening up once more. "My lawyers will tally up what the claim has cost so far in capital, as well as what it would have cost to set up operations in the system. Any details on the system itself would prove invaluable." Tullius spoke.

Liam nodded. "I'll have Ka'mara send down the detailed charts when we all decide it's time to recess." He continued. "No rush, the fewer the mistakes now will save a decade of growing pains later." All parties nodded at the logic of that statement.

Tullius spoke up next. "What are your plans for when you introduce yourselves to the Citadel? To the Council?" he asked.

"The Systems Alliance is a sovereign democratic entity and will remain as such, until such time until certain concessions are made we can I'll afford to gut our entire navy to placate fools on a council who know little to nothing on how our people operate, no offence intended towards your people's choice in councillor of course, we will not be cow towed by anyone." Liam retorted, before continuing.

"Or as my rather candid Prime minister put it in his rather blunt letter, addressed to me…. 'They can politely shove their superiority complex or whatever rod has been shoved up their fucking arses further in there, we will not beg, we will not bow, we will spill blood for our sovereign right to determine 'OUR' future.' Humanity is no one's lap dog. Signed yours faithfully. Prime minister Harold M. Johnson."

Gripping a single sheet of paper, he passed it clockwise around the table so it reached the Primarch, who with his contact lens which had been updated with all of humanities written languages gave a hearty Turian laugh.

"You humans take personal pride in your accomplishments, to think even your Prime minister writes such scathing comments, the Asari will see this as a slight against their established prestige and accumulated power." Tullius remarked.

"Let them, we don't care, they're nothing but a bunch of stagnant parasites, oh we'll play nice to make more friends than enemies, but the moment they try to put a leash on us, we'll snap and draw first blood." Liam took a second to compose himself. "Those amphibian pricks aren't much better in our eyes, try to hide it all they fucking want, but its fucking obvious those assholes have been updating the Genophage to cull the Krogan population, they're like Nazi's in space. Killing off an undesirable race or ethnically cleansing them, we don't care, when one group of humans tried it, we had each and every one of them tried, imprisoned or hung for crimes against humanity."

Tullius coughed. "The Hierarchy did its part; don't you hate us?"

"You lot deployed the weapon to coerce a threat into surrendering to save more lives in the long run, we've done something similar with our own people, is it a black mark that will never wash away, for sure, but here's the crux of it, you did it to save lives, to prevent the war from continuing to its bitter and bloody end. They are continuing to develop it like some cruel and unusual punishment."

Tullius's respect for Humanity had gone up a few notches, even more so for the Captain, for lack of a better term, the man was very Human about his beliefs, almost Turian in dedication but something else at the same time.

"The TL; DR of it, we're sticking to our borders and our way of life, so long as the council stays on theirs, we couldn't give a damn on their opinions on matter, if we do, we'll ask them." The Turian's gave nods towards the declaration.

"What about border security? We need some kind of mutual agreement between both parties." Admiral Nyx spoke for the first time during the meeting.

"System 314, it'll be a single system buffer between our two people." Tullius chipped in, before continuing on. "Both sides will need to provide security for a waypoint station, where goods and vessels will need to be inspected."

Liam gave a nod to the proposal. "Both sides contribute half of the materials to a single station which could double as a neutral embassy, whilst each of us provide, say a battlegroup and a unit of marines to act as station security."

"What about police forces?" Ardella chipped in.

"Could I suggest an Interpol? Which shares information while allowing both sides to execute warrants on the behalf of the other party." One of the Lion's junior officer technicians spoke up.

Notes and the like were being scribbled down all the while, as details were organised, taking an hour long recess somewhere in the middle of the debates for food and drink, somewhat shocking the Turian's when the Humans helped themselves to servings of Turian vegetables.

The kicker being Humans had evolved with the capability to process dextro without an allergic reaction it didn't provide much in the way of nutrition, but it had served to diversify rations on board the Lion after some poor sods had been volunteered 'See: Told' to sacrifice their stomachs for the greater good.

More than a few brow ridges had been raised on just how the discovery had been made, much to Liam's displeasure, having to retell something he had tried his damnedest to forget for a good long while after witnessing that particular car crash in slow motion.

With the initial negotiations dealt with a good couple of days were spent ironing out the biggest creases to the best of the Lion's dedicated crewmen's abilities, it was then with a semi-final draft in both parties possession, Captain Spruce made an unusual request, for the SSV Lion to transit to Palaven to deploy a satellite.

More specifically a Quantum Entanglement Communications satellite, to allow Humanities best and brightest politicians, diplomats and lawyers to. 'Take what they had started with and run with it.' Another Human quote that the delegation had taken a while to. 'Get their heads round.' They'd especially enjoyed a lesson or two in deadpan sarcasm.

Especially if the Turian diplomats could sneak in some finger quotations as a quick jibe or two before the other races 'caught wind' on what the small innocuous gesture meant.

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: Next chapter will be similar to this one only we're going to be catching up with the greater galactic community, who'll be reacting to Hierarchy Military News clips on how humanity kicks arse and takes names.**

**I know fun right, Also if anyone has any suggestions for me on shit hot rock music that needs some love, Alestorm, MANOWAR, Iron Maiden what have you send me a PM with that shit on, name of band and song of choice I will listen to them on Youtube and then and buy the ones I like on Vinyl.**

**When this god-damned lockdown is lifted.  
Stay safe, I want you bastards back to increase my views past 50K!**

**Signed.  
Your Lord Commander, The Manperor of Mankind.  
The one true Omnissiah and all my other titles.**

**Liam Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeu George Doitzel Kaiser Spruce III.**


	16. Covering All The Bases

**AN: Here it is, Ladies, Gents and Xeno's of all ages, another chapter complete it's been in the works for a good while now it's another politicking and world building chapter, sorry for that but it can't all be endless war... unless its WH40K then it definitely can be endless war.**

**Good news: I found new music namely bands such as: BLAZON STONES, favourite song so far has been War of the Roses; BATTLE BEAST with the gem of a song titled Out of Control. Been Listening to them non-stop for the last couple of days, give them a listen to on You Tube would you Kindly.  
**

**Also, I was swinging between days of being blind drunk and stone cold sober, the lads from discord can attest to this seeing as those bastards drove me to the bottle at times, Morriss I'm looking at you. Tosser.**

**Now onto the reason this took so long to write up, I've been working alongside the lads on my (75th Reserve Battlestar Group) Discord to produce the official Wiki Fic that will have as additional world building.  
Its also for me to fact check my shit so I can't DEUS EX MACHINA anything in the future, it'll basically set the ground rules on what can and can't be done.  
**

**It'll be a fun read once its published so keep an eye out for it.**

* * *

December 13th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.  
SSV Lion, Combat Information Centre.

* * *

It had taken a solid week, to organise and file the necessary paperwork, for the Lion to transit further into Hierarchy space, the fucking things had to be signed and countersigned in triplicate, Liam's wrists and hands had cramped something fierce, yes hands as in plural, it'd been a good long while since he had to use his off hand to sign anything.

Anyways, the crew knew that the lion would be a vessel of many 'firsts' considering the mission, First to travel the unknown regions, first to make first contact, not once but twice and now she would be the first human vessel to fly the Primarch's flag.

Why?

To expedite our priority to transit into the heart of Hierarchy space, that and it was more than likely a political statement to the Salarian's and Asari, a metaphorical middle finger to the Dalatrass and Matriarch political elite.

Humanity was after all playing for keeps, so why would Liam refuse such an offer?

"Lieutenant Vakarian, send the necessary data for Mass Relay transit, helm and navigation match course and speed with the Sixth fleet, with your permission Primarch." Liam turned to the third addition to the Lion's war table.

"Permission granted captain." Primarch Tullius Romullianus replied dressed in a fleet admirals day duty uniform as was the custom when the Primarch took upon the role of what was the human equivalent of Lord Admiral of the Systems Alliance Navy.

* * *

December 13th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].  
Citadel Space, Widow Nebula.  
The Citadel, Private Council Chambers.

* * *

"Just what in the name of Athame are your people playing at!" Councillor Tevos barked at her Turian counterpart who just looked towards her with an absolute poker face.

"Taking it upon themselves to negotiate with a race that was compassionate enough to send, one of their heavy-dreadnought's into the spirts damned void to bring back our missing crew." He bit back, before continuing. "Our Primarch is heading the negotiations personally and from what has been reported to me personally, the negotiations will be continued in orbit of Palaven." The word confidentially had been purposefully left out of the sentence, as it was quite obvious that the STG had tapped his comms when the first video had hit the extranet.

What a video it was, seeing the gunmetal grey super-dreadnought come screaming from the heavens like some arbiter of death its underside ablaze from the sheer friction of the air impacting the hull, all to launch a fleets worth of fighter craft to provide air support for the besieged defenders of Agamemnon's capital city.

Which had recently been named in the dreadnought's honour.

"You do realise that future negotiations between us will be heavily penalised?" The Salarian Union's councillor retorted.

"The Hegemony is calling for your new allies to be arrested for war crimes!" Tevos rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Utilising a mass nuclear strike, what kind of savages use nuclear weapons, except Krogan?" She growled.

"Was that before or after the Hegemony attempted to glass Agamemnon with a mass nuclear strike of their own? We have salvaged the two dozen black boxes; we have all the evidence to declare that they escalated the war." The two other councillors recoiled at that news. "Leave that little fact out, did they? Or how about the fact that the 'animals' that had managed to get planet side, begun systematically raping women and girls some as young as four whilst executing the men and boys."

"That's…." Tevos tried to cut in, but was thoroughly cut short, by her the Turian Councillor.

"How about the fact that the Hegemony had deployed eighty or so STG issued Disrupter Stealth Mines? Mine which I might remind you are declared as recognised WMD's and failing to report them as missing or stolen is a crime." Now it was time for the Salarian Councillor to go bug eyed at that titbit of information.

Tevos was quick to shoot a glare towards the Salarian at that bit of news, causing the Salarian to sigh. "It's under investigation, we believe someone in the STG has been compromised for a month now, we've been trying to find whomever it was, since the transport failed to make it to one of our STG Anchorages."

Tevos couldn't believe the political shit storm that was brewing, the hierarchy was baying for blood they had three or more pieces of evidence to rake the Hegemony over the coals, neither the Republics or the Union could interfere to bring the war to a diplomatic close.

Even if they supported the claim that these humans had committed a war crime the Hierarchy could counter claim that the Hegemony itself escalated the war to the point a full nuclear strike was the only option to prevent a colony from being glassed.

Not to mention the sheer fact that the Hegemony used stolen WMD's from the Salarian Union's STG of all people, which would mean the Union would have to admit that they had failed to report eighty WMD's had been stolen from them and seeing as it was the Hegemony that had used them.

That was something that was best left alone. If at all possible.

* * *

December 14th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Human Systems Alliance Space, Frontier Colonial Systems.  
Ragnar-Alpha Sector, Ragnar super gas-giant.  
Demeter Anchorage, Combat Information Centre.

* * *

Orders had just been passed down from Lord Admiral Terrace Hood himself, Demeter alongside her attached battlegroup had to redeploy to the 'New Frontier' colony of Shanxi, besides Demeter, six Phoenix class colony ships as well as a pre-assembled Colony Defence Battlegroup, consisting of twenty-four frigates, twelve destroyers and three light cruisers would be making transit to the world in question.

It'd been a year since last direct contact with the SSV Lion had been made via Quantum Entanglement Communications, a year since Humanity had made contact with the Montressians, a year since Humanity began re-deploying their once unwanted mass relays to create a 'Mass Relay' Relay 'Supply Line', by jumping them to isolated systems between the Frontier Systems and Hierarchy Space.

Said systems just so happened to be secured with liberal deployments of Limpet Stealth Nuclear minefields as a security precaution, each mine capable of independently Identifying Friend or Foe, each one capable of independent tracking or swarming enemy contacts.

With sixty percent of the relay supply line complete, only the last five and a half months of travel would need to be completed using regular FTL methods, all they had to do was wait in the Montressor system, link in with their QEC Satellite and wait for the Lion to transmit through their navigation data when the Turian QEC Satellite linked up with the budding QEC network.

Rear-Admiral James Cutter could only hope that things had gone well with the Hierarchy, then again if it hadn't that was what the SSV Vanguard was for, the current flagship of the Demeter Reserve Fleet.

A ship designed to with the sole objective of hunting down and killing hostile capital ships, her main battery guns were so efficient that they tended to over penetrate any grade of capital ship Battleplate and had a nasty tendency to produce fifteen-million degree plasma equating to 3.2 kilotons of TNT, making her even deadlier in a 'Knife Fight' engagement.

A plasma which had a nasty side effect of transferring all of that heat directly through Kinetic Barriers onto the hull, the results were…. Messy to say the least, it'd been a controversy when she had been deployed at the height of the Insurrection twenty some years ago.

Only just scraping through as conventional weapons, rather than being labelled as Weapons of Mass Destruction.

How the navy managed that one was still a bit of a mystery to the elderly Rear-Admiral, he had no reason to complain about it however, the massive boost in firepower was a welcome addition if everything went to hell in a hand basket.

Picking up his wireless mounted in its base on the Demeter's war table, Rear-Admiral James Cutter, gave his next order, whilst starring at his wife who stood beside his Executive officer. "This is Demeter Actual to all Actuals, Irene, I say again Irene, procced to the rendezvous co-ordinates."

"Phoenix 1 Actual, copies last." A female officer responded.

"Phoenix 2 Actual, Reads five by five." Another female officer replied in kind.

"Phoenix 3 Actual, let's make history." A rather brash sounding young male proclaimed, causing Colonel Hailey Cutter to rub the bridge of her nose with her fore finger and thumb.

"Shanxi Battlegroup Alpha Actual, we'll take point, Demeter Actual." One Commodore Yang Wen-Li replied with his usual laid back tone, the young dual national Chinese-American being one of the top ten youngest officers to achieve the rank of commodore.

Cutter raised his wireless to his mouth once more. "Demeter Actual copies your last, god speed Commodore Li."

"This is Vanguard Actual, all ships are secure in their births, all hands present and accounted for." Came the final confirmation from one Captain Morriss reported from his post aboard the SSV Vanguard from the cruising bridge atop of the SSV Vanguard nicknamed the 'Tower of Doom' in homage to the Royal Navy's Battleship superstructures from world war two.

"XO are we secure for FTL transit?" Captain Kallen Kozuki, formally the Executive Officer of the SSV Lion looked Cutter directly in the eyes. "Aye Admiral, all departments have declared secure for FTL transit." She replied.

"Excellent FTL proceed with the jump, we have a new home to settle." The massive anchorage, in orbit of its previous home the super gas giant of Ragnar was consumed in a blinding flash of light, as its bank of super massive FTL drives folded space and time to transport itself to its destination.

* * *

December 15th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].  
Turian Space, Apien Crest, Trebia System.  
SSV Lion, Portside Landing Bay.

* * *

Captain Spruce trekked the length and width of the portside landing bay, dozens of stalls had been assembled which were manned by the crew of the SSV Lion, equipment, uniforms, vehicles and weapons systems were open for the public to interact with.

Many schools had been given guided tours to see multiple key systems such as CIC, hydroponics, medical, the launch bays, engineering and the mess halls, the crew had been encouraged to interact and answer any questions.

The Crown had been opened to 18's and above, for dextro-alcoholic drinks, pub quizzes and members of the ships band playing various rock hits from the twentieth century to the modern day, mostly, the greatest hits.

All the while on the orbital station, the Primarch had been gracious enough to dedicate a 'green space' for the crew to erect a rugby pitch in quick order, a small rugby union tournament was set up with teams formed around the nationalities of the crew.

A total of eight teams were formed, Group A consisting two matches. England Vs Scotland and New Zealand Vs Ireland; while Group B had Australia Vs Wales and South Africa Vs Japan.

The winning teams in Group A and B would move forward into the Semi-Finals, whilst the other teams competed for their placements against one another, with the victors of Semi-Finals going head to head in the Lion Cup Finals.

One wise ass in the Lion's workshop had actually 3D printed a trophy in the shape of Lions head, which would be displayed in the Crown once the tournament was over.

Today was an exercise to foster relations, get the Turians interested in Human culture and to facilitate that the Hierarchy News Network both 'civil' and 'military' were making their rounds reporting on what they were witnessing, both on board the Lion herself and on the temporary pitch on the station.

Which was undoubtedly being watched by tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of people in the greater known galaxy, not that the crew would miss out on the festivities, as the matches were being broadcast over the ships PA system.

Speaking of which. "…. It looks like a knock on from Scotland, the ref's called for a scrum to re-start play, the atmosphere here is quite electric while we wait for the teams to take their positions, turian crowds have gathered in droves, whilst crew members of the Lion, chant and cheer their fellow sailors from the side-lines…." The commentator gave a small pause before continuing.

"In fact, a good number of the individuals watching the match, come in all manners of shapes and sizes, a good number of Krogan visiting here today are actually learning the game alongside the actual match in an open section of the field beside the pitch…."

That's when a flanging male turian spoke up. "Not surprising really, Krogan excel in physical sports and have been trying to find something other than combat sports to keep themselves and their young entertained." A ring of a whistle was heard in the background.

"That's the re-start, both teams are vying for domination of the ball, we're down to the last minutes of the match if England can dominate this scrum and break through Scotland's defences, they'll win the match…. England are giving all they have…. They've done it, England's scrumhalf clears the ball, Jameson with lightning reactions chips the ball to the far left field, Churchill blazes to the ball barely preventing Scotland's captain Wallace from intercepting the ball!"

The roar of cheering fans could be heard. "He's done it, Churchill breaks past the last of Scotland's defences and dives over the try line, it was a magnificent play, the referee's whistle is blown the conversion is given!" There was a moment of pause followed by another whistle. "That's the game, England: 28 – Scotland: 21!" The commentator cheered as the end-game whistle was blown.

The crew on deck broke out in cheers, which gave some of the Turian visitors a bit of a shock, which gave some of the Turian crewmen serving aboard lion a bit of a chuckle at their families expense.

* * *

To Be Continued….

* * *

**AN: This fic has exploded lately so I would like to give all of those who've joined in this great journey of ours a heartfelt thank you, new or old, I thank you, good news is I've got a two week period to get more work in on FanFic so hopefully (no promises are made) I'll get another chapter out a little sooner than what it took to get this one out.**

**Now with all that sappy shit over and done with, it's been a pleasure to entertain you now would you kindly fuck off.**

**see you on the bounce!**

**Until the next chapter this is GRLS signing off...**


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